Howl Of The Wolf
by PhantomGirl12
Summary: The Saturdays go to a town to investigate strange black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest. But Zak is also the black wolf and has Cryptid powers. When his powers are revealed, he goes to live with the Saturdays. Can he keep his secrets safe? Especially when he could be the key to stopping Kur and Argost might know Zak's secret. Full Summary Inside. AU
1. Zak Finds Delicious Berries

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 1: Zak Finds Delicious Berries

"Alright, today we're going to go to a town that has had some sightings of a black wolf." Drew Saturday explained to the rest of her family, her hand flicking a stray strand of white hair off of her face.

"Why? What does a black wolf have to do with Kur? Or even Cryptids?" Drew's brother, Doyle Blackwell asked.

"Well, maybe nothing, but we still have to go. You never know there could be something interesting there." Drew answered, emptying the glass of water that she had been drinking.

"Alright, alright, I give. When do we leave?" Doyle sighed.

Drew glanced at the clock. "Is 20 minutes ok?"

"I don't have a choice do I?"

"Nope."

Doc Saturday, Fiskerton, Zon and Komodo snickered.

* * *

Zak was happy. He had just discovered a new berry bush on the other side of the forest. His black and white hair bobbed up and down as he ran from the berry bush to his favorite place, clutching his newly-found berries in his hands.

Zak's favorite place was by a stream, he liked to sit in the grass near the edge and watch the water in the stream move.

He was kind of mad at himself for being so careless and letting the people in the town next to the forest see him in his wolf form. He didn't really want anyone to know he was here. The townspeople never wander into the forest so Zak did not mind having them as next door neighbors. They never bothered him so he didn't want to bother them. He does wander into town once and a while, but the people simply ignore him, for which he was glad. He guessed that they might have gotten used to him just appearing out of nowhere.

After sprinting in and out of the bushes and the trees, Zak arrived at his favorite place which he had grown accustom to calling Moonlight Peak, of course, he knew it wasn't a peak, but he liked the name, and it's not like anyone can tell him what or what not to call his favorite place. As for the Moonlight part, at night the moonlight shines through the trees and made a circle in the ground. It was a spectacular sight.

Zak sat down by the edge of the stream and ate some of the berries. He wondered what it was like to have a family that was more than just himself. He had never had a family before. It had always just been him. Him and the wilderness.

He continued to sit and eat his berries, which were delicious by the way, and he was totally oblivious to the adventure that awaits him.

* * *

Well, how was it? I hope it was good. I would be very happy if one person reviewed! ^_^ Please! *Puppy dog face*

Zak: I like it so far.

Me: Thank you, Zak! ^_^

Zak: You're welcome! ^_^

Please review! ^_^ *Both mine and Zak's puppy dog face*

Zak: Plus you can have one of those delicious berries!


	2. Gasp! People!

I **can't believe** I actually got 7 reviews! In one chapter! Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I'm so happy!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me. Nor does the game Go Fish.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 2: Gasp! People!

The Saturday airship had almost reached its destination. It was about a couple minutes away from the town. Right now it was flying above some forest –Zak's, but they don't know that, yet-. Inside the airship Drew and Doc were at the controls, and Doyle was playing Go Fish with the Cryptids. Zon was currently winning.

"We're landing soon. So you should finish the game." Doc warned.

Doyle sighed. "Alright." He counted how many matches he and the Cryptids had.

"Who won?" Drew asked looking back at them.

"Zon did. But it was still a close game."

Zon cawed in satisfaction.

-Line Break-

'_What's that?' _Zak thought. He listened. _'There it was again!' _Zak heard the faint sounds of an airship flying above a distant part of the forest. _'What's an airship doing here?' _Zak wondered. He had only heard an airship once before but it went past the forest and the town. He wondered if this airship was going to pass. Or maybe it's coming here?

His curiosity getting the best of him, he decided to investigate.

Zak looked up just as the airship passed above him. He decided to follow it.

He changed into his wolf self. Figuring he could follow it better if he was a wolf. Sure he could run faster than an average eleven year old human because of his wolf side, but he could run even faster as a wolf, sense he had four legs in wolf form. Zak had always been a little confused that some of his wolf traits carried over to his human form and vice versa. For example, in human form he could smell, hear, run faster than an average eleven year old human, he was stronger and more durable than an average eleven year old human and he could see in the dark. Surprisingly he could bark, growl, whine, whimper and howl like a wolf in human form. He found that especially odd. In turn he could talk like a human in wolf form, and see in color like a human would. He doesn't get as cold in human form as a human normally would because of his wolf form having fur. But in turn he got a little hotter because of his wolf fur. He could also activate his Cryptid power in both forms. And of course, he had his signature lopsided star of white hair in wolf form too.

Zak followed the airship through the wet bushes and trees of the forest. The forest was covered in dew and a little frost. It had rained last night, so the ground was still damp.

Zak realized that the airship was heading towards the town.

'_Maybe it really is coming here!' _Zak gasped. Not that he didn't want new people to come, but he was cautious. He wondered what the people who were in the airship would want.

He approached the edge of the forest that neighbored the town, and positioned himself behind a rock which gave him a great view of the town and of the giant flat clearing located at the other end.

Zak ducked his head so no one could see him watching, but he could still see them.

He flattened his pointy black wolf ears to his head so no one would notice them.

'_They really are coming here!' _Zak thought as he watched the airship descend to the ground and land in the clearing.

Zak watched with interest as a ramp lowered.

Soon after the ramp had connected to the ground a door slid open and six figures stepped out.

There were three humans and three Cryptids.

The first human was a woman who had white hair. The second was a man who had black and white hair, who Zak guessed was married to the first human. The third human was a man that had an orange Mohawk. Possibly a brother to one of the other humans? And… Wait a minute…. Was that a _jetpack_!

'_COOL!' _Zak silently exclaimed, but then started pouting because he didn't have one. Wait! The black and white haired man had a strange glove. Zak wondered if the glove has some kind of power or something. Zak then noticed that the white haired woman had a cool sword. Wow, these strange people have some really cool weapons! _'Of course, The Claw is __**way **__cooler!' _Zak thought thinking of his own Cryptid power focusing weapon.

All the humans, except for the guy with the orange Mohawk, wore strange cloths with a weird 'S' on it. _'Maybe it's a symbol for…Something.' _Zak thought. _'Note to self, find out what symbol means.'_

The first Cryptid was a Fiskerton Phantom. In Zak's opinion, Fiskerton Phantom's tend to be easily recognized. It's kind of hard to miss a furry seven foot tall gorilla cat with red eyes.

The second Cryptid - Wait, that's not a Cryptid. That's a Komodo Dragon. Cool.

The third Cryptid, or maybe not a Cryptid? A prehistoric bird. _'I wonder what it's like to fly.' _Zak wondered. He decided that it would be cool.

The family walked up to one of the townspeople. Zak recognized the blond haired woman. He had often seen her walking around the small town, though he had never actually talked to her.

The white haired woman started talking to her and Zak was glad that the woman and the strange people with her were far enough away from his hiding place that there was no way they could see a black wolf hiding behind a rock in the shadows of the forest. Zak was close enough to hear small bits of the conversation, not a lot, but still better than nothing.

He could make out 'black wolf', 'strange', 'only one', 'howling', and 'very rarely'.

Zak realized that they were talking about him. Where these people here to take him away? He quickly told himself that he needed to find out more before jumping to conclusions like that. After all, they might only be here to explore the forest, and asked the woman about it and the subject of him came up.

Zak pushed away his thoughts as the two women exchanged a few more words and the family started walking away. And to Zak's horror, right towards his hiding place.

Zak started to panic. The family was walking straight towards the rock he was hiding behind!

One step closer… two steps closer… three steps closer…

To Zak's relief the blond haired woman suddenly called out to them. _'I really should figure out what her name is. I'm getting tiered of calling her 'blond haired woman'.' _Thought Zak.

She must have forgotten to tell them something, because Zak was sure she had said 'Wait!'.

The blond haired woman jogged up to them and started talking again, so the family momentarily forgot about walking towards his hiding place.

Zak started breathing again. He hadn't even realized he was holding his breath.

Once again, Zak heard small bits of the conversation. He heard the words 'remember', 'once and a while', 'weird kid', 'used to', 'appearing', 'ever talked', 'knows anything' and he heard the family say thanks to the blond haired woman for the information. The blond hair woman started walking away, then she turned her head back towards the family and said some words that Zak couldn't make out, and walked away again.

The family turned and talked to one another, and Zak, also tired of having to keep his ears flat, took the opportunity to silently slip back into the forest.

He didn't know what the weird family was doing here, but he knew that he had to find out… somehow. He wasn't sure how yet, but he was certain that he would get an idea eventually.

Zak, still in wolf form, ran through the forest, bending around the various trees and bushes until he was back at his little cave by Moonlight Peak.

* * *

**(AN: This is following the Saturdays from getting off the airship ramp to when Zak ran back into the forest. So we can see what the blond haired woman said. And see what the blond haired woman's name is!)**

The Saturdays walked to the bottom of the airship ramp and looked around at the town in front of them.

It was a small town, almost village-like. Some of the townspeople were outside of their small houses and walking in the bright afternoon sunshine and mingling with each other.

"Let's go find someone to tell us more about the black wolf." Doc suggested.

"Good idea." His wife, Drew, agreed.

"Let's go ask her." Doyle said, gesturing to a blond haired woman on the other side of town.

After walking though town, the family approached the blond haired woman.

"Hi, I'm Drew Saturday, my family and I are here to investigate some sightings of a black wolf." Drew introduced herself.

The blond haired woman smiled brightly and introduced herself. "Hello, I'm Alesha. We don't usually get visitors around here. We're pretty isolated from everything else, as you've probably noticed."

"So you're here about the black wolf?" Alesha questioned.

"Yes, could you tell us about the wolf?" Drew asked.

Alesha nodded. "The black wolf is mysterious and strange. There seems to be only one wolf instead of a pack. We never hear any other wolves howling at night with it. It's very rarely seen, and has only been spotted twice. The first time it was only an outline and we thought that it might have been a stray dog, but then someone saw it in some light and we all realized that it was actually a wolf. That's about all I could tell you, nobody really knows anything about it."

"Thanks for the information. Has anything else odd ever happened?" Drew asked, her curiosity of the black wolf increasing with each passing minute.

"No problem. And I can't recall anything else odd." Alesha told them. "Sorry."

"Ok, thanks again." Drew and the rest of the family bid Alesha goodbye and walked a little closer to the forest.

"_The black wolf seems really weird." _Fiskerton grumbled.

Doyle nodded in agreement.

"So, are we going to search for this wolf now?" Doyle asked, who was secretly wishing to go flying through the forest with his jetpack, but alas that might set the forest on fire, and Doyle didn't want that.

Drew was about to answer but she was cut of by someone shouting "Wait!".

They turned to see Alesha jogging towards them.

"Hey, I remember something odd, once and a while this weird kid would just, like, appear out of nowhere. Like, literally out of nowhere, there isn't another town for miles and miles. He just walks around town for a little while and then disappears into thin air. And then doesn't appear again for a month or so. I didn't think of it as being odd when you asked me because we've all just gotten used to him appearing one day. He never talks to anyone, and no one ever tries to talk to him. Everybody just ignores him, and that seems to be just the way he likes it. He's just as mysterious as the black wolf, no one knows anything about either of them. Some people have even wondered if he and the black wolf are ghosts who lived here, like a really long time ago. But I know that they're both real. I just know they're not ghosts. One other thing, if you're going to see if you can find him, and I'm going to be completely honest with you guys, I doubt that you'll be able to find either him or the wolf. But the kid has a weird hairdo. He's got black hair with, like, I don't know, a puff or something of white hair. And it seems to be kind of spiky." Alesha started walking away and turned her head in their direction to say two words. "Good luck." She paused and then continued. "You're going to need it." And with that she walked away.

"So now there's a wolf _and _a kid we're looking for." Doc sighed, he knew that they were in for a long search.

"Yep, so we better start searching." Drew announced optimistically.

* * *

Wow! That was a _really _long chapter, at least as long as my chapters go. And thank you so much again for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^

Please review! ^_^


	3. And The Light Bulb Glows Bright

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 3: And The Light Bulb Glows Bright

As the Saturdays are preparing to search for Zak, said wolf was currently in his little cave trying to figure out a way to find out exactly what the strange family was doing there. Were they nature photographers looking to photograph a wolf? He highly doubted that.

Zak pushed the question out of his mind…. for now. He had to think of what he was going to do. He silently considered going to Antarctica, but decided against it. There were no forests there, at least as far as he knew. He wondered if there was a really secret forest in Antarctica. _'It's possible. I mean Cryptids aren't supposed to exist either, but they do.' _Zak thought. He liked the idea of some supposedly non-existent secret forest in Antarctica.

Zak silently scolded himself. People were here looking for him for some unknown reason and he was thinking about forests in Antarctica!

He _had _to think of a plan before those people started searching for him.

'_Let me think. What could I do?' _Zak thought about what he should do. Antarctica was out. Hmm…. He could go somewhere else for awhile. Zak shook his furry wolf head. No, he thought. He knew that he needed to stay.

Wait! Zak had just thought of a brilliant plan. If there was a light bulb on his head it would surly be glowing very, very brightly.

He decided that _he _would go to _them_! But not as a wolf, as a human. He was sure that the blond haired woman had told them about him in human form too. He had distinctly heard 'weird kid' and considering that he just appears out of nowhere and than disappears he was positive that they had been talking about him.

His plan was brilliant. He would let them 'find' him, in human form, and then help them search for his wolf self. It was brilliant! They didn't know that he was a hybrid, so as long as he was with them in human form they couldn't find his wolf-self! And if they somehow started to think that the wolf was a hybrid, they would never think to look at what was right in front of them!

Zak was very proud of his plan.

* * *

The Saturdays were currently standing near the edge of the forest, about to start searching for the black wolf and the weird kid.

"Ok, let's get moving. That wolf could be anywhere. So could the kid." Doc scanned the forest with his good eye.

"_Let's go!" _Fiskerton shouted, eager to start the search.

They then disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

* * *

Zak waited twenty minutes before leaving his cave to find the strange people. He shifted to his human form as he exited the cave. Zak sniffed the air.

There! The scent was distant, but distinctive.

Zak slowly followed the scent through the many trees and bushes of the forest.

~ Five Minutes Later ~

Zak had definitely taken his time following the strong scent to the strange people.

He lifted his head to the blue early afternoon sky and, yet again, sniffed.

He was very close to the family's current location.

Zak took a deep breath and sighed. Hoping he wasn't dooming himself, Zak headed off to meet the strange family.

~ 1 Minute Later ~

Zak could see them now, but they couldn't see him because they had their backs to him. They were obliviously distracted by something. A bird maybe?

Suddenly, a mischievous idea formed in Zak's mind. He decided that if he was going to doom himself he might as well have some fun doing it. Zak's mischievous idea was to sneak up behind them and scare them.

Zak, barely making any sound at all, sneaked up behind them. He suddenly wondered what was so interesting that caused none of them to notice him. Maybe he was a lot quieter than he thought?

'_This'll be fun!' _Zak thought, a mischievous smile forming on his face.

Zak decided that it was time to put his plan into action.

"What're you looking at?"

Their reactions differed. Most of them just jumped from the shock of being scared. Zak never knew that humans could jump so high…

Even so, the Fiskerton Phantom's reaction was, by far, the best.

The gorilla cat had let out a horribly loud shriek, which somewhat resembled a scared little girl's scream, and then sprang several feet into the air. If there had been a ceiling he certainly would have hit it.

Zak covered his sensitive wolf ears. The gorilla cat's scream was so loud to his ears it was like someone had screamed right into them. _'Maybe this wasn't the best idea.' _He thought, his ears still getting over the scream.

Zak crossed his arms over his chest and glared at them. "Uhg! Are you trying to make me deaf!"

"Hey! You're the one who scared us all half to death!" The man with the orange Mohawk rebuffed. "And besides, Fiskerton didn't even scream that loud. Loud sure. But not _that _loud." Referring to Zak's reaction.

Zak sighed and uncrossed his arms. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore. So, what're you doing here? No one ever goes into the forest." Zak asked, digging for information.

The man with black and white hair who answered. "We're here to investigate sightings of a black wolf."

"Oh, so you're just here to try and find the wolf? That's all?"

"Yeah. What did you think we were going to do? Capture it? And why are you asking so many questions anyway?" Orange Mohawk dude said.

"Oh no reason, just curious." Zak nonchalantly said.

"Who are you? We heard from one of the people in town that you're always disappearing and reappearing. And that we had no chance of finding you?" The white haired woman asked.

"I'm Zak. Which person in town told you about me? And who are you!" Zak questioned. Of course, he knew that they had talked to the blond haired lady, but they didn't know that he knew.

"We talked to a blond haired woman, Alesha."

'_So that's her name.' _Zak thought.

The white haired woman then introduced her family.

Her name was Drew Saturday. Her husband – the guy with black and white hair – was Doc Saturday. Her brother – orange Mohawk dude – was Doyle Blackwell. The loud Fiskerton Phantom was named Fiskerton. Zak decided that Fiskerton's name was too long, he would call him Fisk. The Komodo Dragon – who turned out to be genetically altered – Was, surprise, named Komodo. The prehistoric bird was Zon. But Zak, judging by the previous cryptid's names, had been expecting 'Birdy', or something like that.

"I'll help you look for the wolf." Zak suggested.

"Really? That would be great. Thanks." Drew replied. She was wondering why the strange kid in tan cargo pants and a black long sleeved shirt with white sneakers was so eager to help them look for a wild wolf. But she brushed it off as curiosity.

So Zak and the Saturdays spent the next couple hours searching for Zak.

* * *

I am SO, SO, SO sorry about not updating for a really long time… I kinda got a little stuck at the beginning and at the end. But no worries! I'm determined to update more! So hopefully now I'll get back to updating regularly!

Thanks to all of the reviewers and favorites and alerts! It gives me inspiration! Also a special thanks to okami's princess for helping me decide what Zak is wearing! ^_^ Also I don't know if any of you noticed but Zak gets distracted easily! Remember the Forests in Antarctica? I get distracted really easily too! ^_^

Please review! ^_^

And in case I don't update tomorrow! Merry Christmas! ^_^


	4. Pointy Thorny Death Trap Plus Fur

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 4: Pointy Thorny Death Trap Plus Fur

After hours of searching, the Saturdays decided to stop for the day and Zak was relived. He had been **so**bored following the Saturdays around the forest 'helping' them look for his wolf form. In truth, he had been leading them in circles.

Zak was accompanying the family to the edge of the forest that neighbored the town. They were heading back to their airship for the night.

"Are you guys gonna look some more tomorrow?" Zak asked. " Cause if you are I'll help like I did today."

"Alright. We're going to start searching again tomorrow morning, you can help if you want to." Drew said.

Zak silently sighed. He felt guilty about leading them in circles, but he had to make sure they didn't find him in wolf form.

The Saturdays bid Zak farewell and headed toward their airship for the night.

* * *

~ Early Morning - Saturday Airship ~

Fiskerton yawned. It was early in the morning and he had just woken up from a good night's sleep.

He walked in the main living area of the airship and saw the rest of his family sitting around a small table. Well, not _all_ of them. Actually only Doyle and Doc were sitting, and surprisingly actually having a civil conversation instead of fighting, Zon and Komodo were eating somewhere on the floor, and Drew was… somewhere.

Fiskerton had just grabbed a box of cereal when Drew came in. She didn't look all that happy. She let out a loud sigh.

"The Secret Scientists want us to capture and relocate the wolf. To close to civilization they said." Drew quietly sighed again. She wasn't thrilled about the prospect of capturing the wolf, even if it was near civilization, but she knew that the wolf would probably be better off somewhere else. Still, she wasn't excited about having to catch it. But of course, they would have to find the wolf first.

* * *

~ Zak - Same Time ~

Zak was currently running around the forest in wolf form like a crazy wolf. He had already had breakfast and he was full of pent up energy!

He was panting by the time he made his way back to Moonlight Peak.

_Pant, Pant, Pant, Weave, Pant, Pant, Pant, Pant, Weave, Pant, Weave, Weave._

Zak, who hadn't been paying much attention at the time, accidentally ran into a thorn bush that bordered Moonlight Peak.

He tried to push his way out, but there were several thorns poking at his fur. Still, he was glad that he was in wolf form or else it definitely would have hurt. A lot.

Zak struggled against the thorns. He managed to shake some of them off, but many of them still clung to his furry black wolf coat.

He carefully maneuvered his body to loosen as many thorns as he could and after what seemed like forever, Zak had managed to loosen the thorns that had him trapped.

He lunged forward and out of the thorny bush. Or death trap, as Zak had just decided to call it.

He started jumping up and down with glee, but his celebration was cut short as he realized that his paw had a small cut on it. He couldn't see it in wolf form so he shifted back to human.

Zak looked at his hand and saw that there was a long thin cut on it. The cut was bleeding slightly but not very much. It would heal soon enough and Zak wasn't worried.

Ignoring the cut, Zak stood up and carefully brushed the remaining thorns off of his black shirt and tan cargo pants.

Soon he declared himself thorn free and headed off to meet up with the Saturdays.

Unknown to him, a small clump of black wolf fur was still stuck to the thorny death trap.

* * *

Zak soon found the Saturdays, who had just started searching for his wolf self.

After awhile of searching they all stopped to decide where to go next.

"Still no sign of the wolf." Doc sighed.

"Which way do we go next?" Zak asked. They were close to Moonlight Peak and his cave, so Zak was a little nervous. He had to be ready to steer them away from there.

Fiskerton grumbled something and pointed in the direction of his cave.

"Alright, Fiskerton, we can try there." So the Saturdays started to head towards Moonlight Peak.

"Wait!" Zak shouted. "Uh, let's go somewhere else. How about over there?" Zak pointed in a random direction.

"Why?" They all looked at him strangely.

"Umm, oh, over there is uh a thorny death trap!" Zak said. At least he wasn't lying…

"I think we'll be ok, but thanks for the warning."

They continued walking.

'_Oh no, oh no, oh no' _Zak thought, as he walked behind the Saturdays. He was certain that they were leading him towards his doom.

By now they were entering the grassy clearing that is Moonlight Peak.

"This place is beautiful." Drew admired.

"Yeah, yeah it is. Oh look, there's no wolf here, let's go look somewhere else." Zak said and started walking away desperately hoping they were going to follow him.

"What's the rush? Why don't we look around for awhile?" Drew said walking toward the small river that was very close to Zak's cave.

'_That's it. I'm doomed.' _Zak sighed.

Suddenly Fiskerton was signaling them to a bush at the edge of the clearing.

Zak started walking towards the gorilla cat and got a bad feeling when he realized that the bush was the thorny death trap he had been caught in earlier.

"What do we have here?" Doc said looking down at the thorny bush.

'_What? They found something!' _Zak, his bad feeling turning out to be true, ran up to see what they found.

He froze upon arrival at the thorny death trap.

Stuck in the bush was a small clump of black fur. His fur.

* * *

I am SO sorry for the wait but I didn't know what to do….. And I know that New Years was 11 days ago but, Happy New Year anyway!

The story is starting to move along now! And now that I know what to do I should be able to update much faster! ^_^

So let's hope for regular updates! ^_^

And I also want to mention that okami's princess thought of a great idea for the story but I had already started on the idea I had so she is writing an alternate version! ^_^ I suggest you all check it out! And just to tell you _**I HAVE GIVEN HER PERMISSION.**_

Please review! ^_^


	5. Of Powers And Cryptids: Part 1

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 5: Of Powers And Cryptids: Part 1

"It's some kind of fur." Drew said as she carefully removed the fur from its thorny prison, and held it in the palm of her hand to inspect.

"I think it's some type of canine fur, and it's black, so I'm guessing that it's the black wolf's fur." She observed.

"So you're saying the wolf got caught in a thorn bushand got some fur stuck on the thorns?" Doyle said.

"Ouch." Fiskerton grumbled and, upon further inspection of a particularly large and pointy thorn, he immediately pitied any poor unsuspecting creature that found itself unfortunate enough to be caught in the pointy thorn bush. Zon cawed in agreement while Komodo merely gave a small hiss and returned to eating the multicolored flowers. **(1)**

The family was so interested in the piece of fur, they momentarily forgot Zak was even there.

Although that was probably a good thing because Zak was currently oblivious to the world.

'_Ah oh no, no, no, no, no, I'm doomed! Doomed, doomed, doomed! WHAT DO I DO?' _Zak was extremely panicked, but managed to come back to the real world.

"Um…... So …... What are you guys gonna do now?" Zak hesitantly stepped forward.

"Same as we were doing before we found the fur. Look for any signs of the wolf."

And thus, the search continued.

* * *

Although Zak was on edge the entire time, he managed to keep himself calm enough while the Saturdays searched for the rest of the day, so they wouldn't get suspicious.

It was now the middle of the night and the Saturdays had long since returned to their airship for the night.

Zak had so much pent up energy that even though he had ran around some earlier that day, he couldn't take it anymore. He had always been a very energetic kid with a lot of energy, and being half wolf only added more. So he now found himself racing around the forest, a mere blur in the shadows of the night, dodging in between the foliage of the lush forest.

Zak eventually returned to his cave, panting like crazy from his long run. He climbed on top of his cave, where he had a beautiful view of the moonlit circle made by the trees in Moonlight Peak. From the circle it looked as if Zak was standing on a cliff.

He stood on the cliff for awhile, gazing up at the shining moon. Once he caught his breath he raised his head, flattened his ears and howled.

Zak knew that the entire town, and probably the Saturdays too, could hear him, but apparently the townspeople were so used to his howling that they slept right through it. The Saturdays, however, were a little different. They woke up, but not enough to realize that the howling sound was being made by the wolf they've been chasing after. So they quickly fell asleep again. At least, the humans did. The Cryptids wanted to investigate.

They quietly slipped out of the airship into the dark night to find the source of the howling they where hearing.

The Cryptids, in a surprisingly short time, reached Moonlight Peak. They stood at the edge of the clearing to observe the circle of moonlight on the ground and the howling wolf perched on what looked like a cliff.

Zak had yet to notice his audience. He howled for awhile longer before stopping. That was when he finally noticed the Cryptids.

He stared at them. The Cryptids were staring at Zak's captivating orange eyes which seemed to glow in the darkness. **(AN: His eyes in wolf form are the color of his Cryptid powers.) **

Zak didn't want the Cryptids to see him for a long time, for fear they might start to make a connection between his human self and his wolf self. So he turned and trotted out of the Cryptids view and into his cave.

Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon went back to the airship and feel asleep again as if they had never left, but they would definitely tell their human parents about their encounter with the wolf in the morning.

Back in his cave, Zak yawned.

'_It's been a long day.'_ Zak thought, as he started to drift off to sleep.

Zak was asleep in minutes.

* * *

~ Early The Next Morning - Saturday Airship ~

The Saturday family was sitting around a table eating breakfast while they listened to the Cryptids' story of the previous night. They didn't have to meet up with Zak to look for the wolf until later that morning, so they had plenty of time to hear the fascinating tale.

The Cryptids recalled their midnight adventure into the forest, though Fiskerton did most of the talking since he was the only one of them the family could understand. He described the sight of Moonlight Peak at night, the bright circle of moonlight that lights the clearing on cloudless nights, and, of course, the howling wolf.

The Saturdays listened intently to the story. Once Fiskerton was finished, and after Doyle shoved the remainder of his breakfast into his mouth, they started cleaned up the dishes from breakfast.

Once the cleaning was finished they thought about their next move.

"Why don't we go look for the wolf earlier today? Fiskerton, Zon and Komodo can lead us back to where they saw it. Our other search method doesn't seem to be working out very well." Drew suggested. "And once it's time to meet up with Zak we can go to the regular meeting point."

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Doc agreed.

So they set out on their search early that day.

* * *

Zak had finished breakfast, and was enjoying running around Moonlight Peak in wolf form. He still had some time before the Saturdays set out on their search for his wolf self… or so he thought.

Zak, who was standing on the edge of a wet mud puddle, had his attention currently being held captive by a bird flying overhead, so he failed to scent or hear the Saturdays' fast approach toward his location.

It was almost too late when he realized that the family was about to see him, and unlike at night, the white star on his black wolf head was clearly visible in the morning daylight and it was a dead giveaway for his human self's identity.

He had to think fast, he couldn't let the Saturdays suddenly stumble upon his human self in the exact location where the Cryptids had seen his wolf self the night before, but he couldn't let the Saturdays see his spot of white fur either. If they saw his human self they'd get suspicious, but if they saw his patch of white fur they would know that his wolf self was also the kid that has been helping them, and that would be really bad.

Zak remembered the dark wet mud he had noticed earlier at his feet, and thinking fast, he stuck his head in the mud. He hoped the mud was dark enough to hide the white star on his head.

He looked up just in time to watch the Saturdays enter the clearing.

They looked up and saw him for a brief moment before Zak bolted as fast as he could in another direction, he knew they would attempt to follow him, but they could never catch up with the speeding hybrid racing through the forest at an amazing speed.

Once Zak was confident he'd put enough distance between himself and the Saturdays, he slowed to a stop. It was almost time for him to meet up with the Saturdays, so he changed to human form, made sure to get all the mud off of himself, and headed towards the meeting place, desperately hoping the family hadn't seen his white star.

The Saturdays were already waiting for him when he arrived, and they quickly explained their encounters with the wolf. Zak wasn't really listening, since he had been there, he already knew the stories, but he had to at least look like he was listening.

Once they were done, Zak breathed a silent sigh of relief. They had made no indication that they had seen any white fur under the mud.

The Saturdays wanted to go back to Moonlight Peak and Zak knew there was nothing he could do or say to change their minds, so he followed them back, wondering to himself if the day could get worse.

After arriving at Moonlight Peak, the family split up and each headed of in a random direction to investigate the area. Zak decided to use this time to stare angrily at the thorny death trap bush he had been caught in the previous morning.

He spent several minutes glaring angrily at the bush, remembering the small scratch on his hand it had given him, before he scented something odd.

The first scent was rather foul, to say in the least. It reminded Zak of death.

The second scent wasn't as foul, but still foul none the less. There was a hint of… spider? Very odd.

He didn't recognize the first nor the second scent. These strange, foul scents were completely new to him.

The third, however, he did recognize. Three Tapire-Iauaras. Zak knew that a couple Tapire-Iauara families lived in a forest a couple forests away from his, he still wonders why they were there and how they got there. He knew that Tapire-Iauaras were supposed to be in the Amazon Rainforest, but either way, as far as Zak knew, they had never before set a paw beyond their own territory before now.

Zak's body was tense. He had no idea what was approaching. But it was close. Very close.

* * *

Zak: What's close? What's close? WHAT'S CLOSE!

Me: Calm down, Zak.

Zak: No.

Me: Yes.

Zak: No

Me: Yes

Zak: No.

Me: FINE!

Zak: *Smiles Victoriously*

Zak: By the way, why do you sometimes refer to yourself as a wolf?

Me: Because it's my story and I can be what I want! *Growls At Zak*

Zak: Ok… *Goes Back To Glaring Angrily At Thorny Death Trap Bush*

Me: *Victorious Howls At Moon As White Wolf*

**(1) **I added multicolored flowers! ^_^ I don't know why… I just did.

The last Chapter 5 was completely rushed and had several parts in it that I'm not happy with at all. So I rewrote it, added more and split the chapter into two parts! ^_^ It still follows the basic plotline that the other Chapter 5 had, but I also added more into it and changed some other things a little bit! ^_^

I'm really sorry at how slow updating has been….. I'm really gonna try to update more often! ^_^

Please review! ^_^


	6. Of Powers And Cryptids: Part 2

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**IMPORTANT: I rewrote Chapter 5 to be Part 1, so make sure you read Part 1 and not the original Chapter 5 before reading this chapter!**

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 6: Of Powers And Cryptids: Part 2

Zak highly disliked this feeling of unknown and his instincts warned him of impending danger.

The death trap thorn bush long forgotten, Zak realized the Saturdays were blissfully unaware of the looming disaster, unaware of the three Tapire-Iauaras and the two foul scents approaching.

He knew he had to warn them.

"Guys! Watch out!" Zak shouted.

They looked up at him in confusion.

"Why? There's nothing here except for us." Doyle asked.

As if they were answering his question, the Tapire-Iauaras jumped into the clearing, roaring angrily as they landed on the green grass.

'_Uh oh. Not good.'_ Zak thought, catching sight of a gleam from one of angry Cryptid's sharp deadly claws.

"Greetings and bienvenue." A cold menacing voice cut like a knife through the clearing. Two figures appeared in the clearing, they were the other scents.

Zak recognized them as V. V. Argost and Munya from Weird World. He had seen the show a couple times, and had learned that they were evil and cruel from hearing stories of what they had done from some Cryptids and watching Weird World, but he did not yet know just _how_ evil and cruel they actually were.

The Saturdays immediately got into fighting stances, and it was obvious to Zak that they had meet before and were enemies.

"I see you have recruited some help looking for that mysterious wolf." Argost said when he saw Zak.

"Leave him alone Argost." Drew threatened. She and the rest of the family moved in front of Zak as to protect him.

Zak felt undignified. He did **not **need them to protect him.

'_Hey! I can protect myself!' _He thought, obviously annoyed. His pride was now hurt.

"Do not fear. The child is not my target… but unfortunately for him, he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." Argost said, cackling evilly.

The Tapire-Iauaras crept closer; stalking the family's every move with their eyes.

"Anyone got any bright ideas?" Doyle asked, grabbing a couple concussion grenades.

Fiskerton shook his head.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Tapire-Iauaras attacked. They shoved the Saturdays away and left Fiskerton. The predators started to circle the frightened gorilla cat and to Zak's horror he realized they were going in for the kill.

"Fiskerton!" Zak shouted, he knew that he had to use his Cryptid powers to save Fiskerton. No matter who would see it.

But he could never have guessed how much saving the gorilla cat would change his life forever.

Zak ran in front of the Cryptids, activating his Cryptid powers as he ran.

"Get away from him!" Zak shouted, raising the Claw, which was glowing orange like his eyes.

The Tapire-Iauaras snarled as they fought Zak's powers. But Zak would not give up so easily and concentrated harder.

Finally, the angry Cryptids settled down and stopped snarling.

'_Ok, time to go home now.' _The Tapire-Iauaras backed away and ran back to their own territory.

'_Good kitties.' _Zak thought, deactivated his powers.

He looked behind him to see if Fiskerton was alright.

The gorilla cat was unscathed, but, like the rest of his family, he was very surprised by Zak's powers.

Argost and Munya's faces remained emotionless, as usual.

"This is an interesting development. Come Munya." With that, Argost and Munya were gone.

"That was close." Zak sighed, relaxing now that the danger had passed.

He looked at the Saturdays, who were all still gaping at him.

"What?" He asked, confused as to why they were acting so strange because he had used his powers. He knew it wasn't something many people could do, but he didn't see the big deal.

Drew finally spoke up.

"Do you know what you just did?"

"What kinda question is that? I just used my Cryptid powers to save Fisk from being _eaten_."

"Zak, I think you should come with us." They started to usher him in the direction of their airship.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zak dug his heels into the ground. "I am _not _going anywhere with some random strangers that I don't even know!"

"Alright look. Your powers are the only thing that can stop the ancient Cryptid Kur if it was to be released. Argost is trying to release Kur, and since you're the only one who could stop it, that makes you a threat, which means you're a target for Argost." Drew quickly explained.

Zak wasn't sure what to make of this news. He cocked his head to the side and stammered. "Wh-What?"

Drew sighed. "Never mind. We need to talk to your parents because you're in serious danger."

Zak snapped back to reality. "My parents? Uh…. my parents are… my parents are… on vacation! Yeah, on vacation."

"And they left you here all alone?" Doc raised an eyebrow.

"Yes! I mean no! Uhg." Zak was tired of answering these people and he didn't like making his parents sound like they just packed up and left him to fend for himself.

'_They would've __**never **__done that. __**Never**__.' _He thought sadly. _'I really miss them.'_

He felt sad thinking about his lost parents. They had loved him and would never have left him all alone.

Zak pushed his feelings of sadness and loneliness away. This wasn't the time to feel sad.

"I don't _have _to tell you anything! And I won't! And I'm not going with you no matter what either!" Zak shouted angrily. He turned and ran away, he wasn't going to stick around with these strangers anymore.

* * *

Zak: Man, I miss my parents… *Sniff* *Sniff*

White Wolf: Oh no, Zak! Please don't cry! You know I can't take it when you cry!

Zak: *Sob*

White Wolf: *Sob* Now *Sob* You've got me *Sob* Crying! *Sob*

*Zak and White Wolf cry*

By the way, I don't know if you noticed but I am now calling myself White Wolf. ^_^

Also, you'll find out some more about Zak's parents later.

Man, I am SO slow at updating….. I'm really mad at myself. '-_-

But I do think that I can update faster now, 'cause I've got a lot already planned out! ^_^ And I know I say that every time…. '-_-

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	7. A Hybrid's Past

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 7: A Hybrid's Past

"Well that went well." Doyle deadpanned.

Zak was long gone, and they all knew it.

"How are we going to get him to come with us? He's a walking target for Argost!" Drew said.

"I don't know, but we need to figure something out. Argost could strike at any moment. Let's go back to the airship. He's not coming back to talk to us anytime soon." Doc sighed.

* * *

~ Saturday Airship - Same Day ~

Not long after the family arrived back at their airship, the Secret Scientists called to see if they had captured the wolf yet.

"Well…. No. We haven't yet." Drew continued. "But we did find something, or should I say, someone else."

She explained the situation about Zak. The other scientists were surprised to hear that the Saturdays had managed to stumble upon possibly the one thing that could stop Kur. And said thing was an eleven year old kid.

"And now he's a walking target for Argost." She finished.

"That is a big problem." Dr. Paul Cheecho said.

"He says his parents are on vacation." Drew said, unconvinced.

"And they just left him there?" Dr. Miranda Grey speculated.

"That was what we said too. He said yes, then he said no, then he said he wouldn't tell us anything."

Fiskerton took this moment to announce his observations. _"When the mention of his parents came up, he had this sad look on his face for a moment…."_

"I think it's obvious that they're not around." Doc said.

"Think they left him?" Doyle asked.

"I don't know, Doyle, I just don't know." Drew sighed.

* * *

~ Zak's Cave - That Night ~

'_This is so confusing! What should I do?' _Zak thought. _'It feels like my life is suddenly spinning out of control…'_

Zak looked at his beloved anklet thing around his ankle that his parents had given him before – no, he didn't want to think about that.

'_I wish you guys were here.'_ He thought sadly. He felt tears springing to his eyes as he rubbed his hand over each bead, they were all different in some way.

He remembered when his parents told him that no matter what he did, the bracelet thing would never break. Perfect for him, they had said. He, naturally, got into a lot of trouble when he was younger. Ah… Some things never change.

There were two black beads, one with a Z on it and one with a B on it. The first white bead had a Z on it, the second one had an A. There was one light blue bead, this had an A on it. There was a dark brown bead with a B, an orange bead with a Z, and finally a bead with all of those colors and no letter, but it did have a wolf howling on it. The orange bead was the color of Zak's Cryptid powers, he liked to call this color Cryptid Orange.

Zak desperately wished for his parents' advice. They came to see him sometimes, using their powers as DreamWalkers. But they were only able to come see him in his dreams very rarely, usually when he had a problem and desperately needed advice, like this time.

Since both his parents were DreamWalkers, Zak was to. This enabled him to – as the name suggests – walk in other creatures dreams.

Zak lay down, waiting for sleep to come, hopping that his parents would come to give him advice.

* * *

*White Wolf Howls*

White Wolf: I'm on a roll! ^_^

Zak: Hooray! ^_^

*Zak and White Wolf Howl*

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	8. Stubborn Refusal

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 8: Stubborn Refusal

Zak woke up slowly the next morning. _'No. Go back to sleep.' _Zak moaned in his thoughts. He had been racing a cheetah. _'I was gonna win too.' _He thought sadly.

He suddenly remembered the previous day.

'_They never came…' _Zak thought sadly. He had been desperately wishing for advice.

Suddenly he wondered what he was going to do that day. He knew the Saturdays would come back to try to talk to him. _'Why do they think I need protecting so much? I am not defenseless!'_

'_So what if my powers are their only hope of stopping... That Cryptid… What did they call it?... Kur! Yeah, Kur…' _Zak didn't think that his powers were the _only _thing that could stop that Cryptid, Kur. _'There's always another way…' _Zak sighed. Oh how he missed his Mom and Dad's sayings. _'That one had always been dad's favorite...'_

"Snap out of it Zak!" He scolded himself out loud. This wasn't the time to remember the (usually) wise sayings his parents recited.

'_I guess I'll eat breakfast, run around, and then go sniff out the Saturdays.' _Zak sighed. He definitely didn't want to talk to them, but if he didn't, they would just try to find him. Sure it would be easy to avoid them, being able to scent them made it easy to make sure they were nowhere near him. But Zak hoped that if he made it absolutely clear to them that he was never going with them no matter what enough times that they would get the message and leave.

Zak was determined to get them to leave him, and his wolf self, alone.

* * *

~ Later That Day ~

'_Ah, there they are.' _Zak thought. He was currently in his wolf form busy scenting the Saturdays. It wasn't that hard since there were so many of them.

Zak trotted forward, following his nose toward the family.

When he had almost reached them, he stopped. He was careful not to get too close, he did not wanting them to know he was there.

Zak shifted into human form. He was about to walk the rest of the way when he spotted a butterfly. His predatory instincts activating, he quickly shifted to wolf form and started stalking the fluttering blue butterfly.

'_The predator stalks his unsuspecting prey…..' _Zak narrated in his head.

He continued to stalk the unsuspecting butterfly for several more feet before it landed itself onto a healthy green leaf.

'_As the chance arrives, the predator readies for the leap…' _

Zak leaped into the air, switching from wolf to human in the blink of an eye and cupped the little blue butterfly in his hands, careful not to hurt it.

'_The prey has been caught.' _Zak thought triumphantly, peaking between his fingers to observe the butterfly.

After observing his catch for a moment, Zak gently laid his hands flat, letting the captured butterfly free, the innocent little blue butterfly flew away, only to end up back on the healthy green leaf it had originally been relaxing on.

The butterfly lingered on the leaf for a little while longer before flying off.

'_Bye, Butterfly.' _Zak thought as he watched the butterfly disappear into the shadows of the forest.

'_Now what was I doing again….' _Zak thought for a moment. _'Oh yeah! Getting the Saturdays to leave. Right.'_

Back on task, Zak sniffed the air. He was surprised to smell that his little chase with the butterfly had led him very close to the Saturdays. He thought about sneaking up on them again, but after remembering what happened last time, he decided he wouldn't be scaring them again anytime soon and decided against sneaking up on them.

Zak readied himself. It was now or never, and he wanted the Saturdays to leave him alone. For good.

* * *

Said family was aimlessly wandering around the forest trying to locate the stubborn hybrid in an effort to convince him he was not safe. So far, they had found no sign that Zak was anywhere. They were starting to wonder if the kid was invisible or something.

* * *

Zak silently ran ahead of the Saturdays, deciding to amuse them by letting them, once again, believe they had 'found' him.

He sat on a large rock and waited.

* * *

~ 1 Minute Later ~

Zak was fidgeting. Patience wasn't something he was good at.

'_Man, they're slow… I've already been waiting here for, like, a long time!' _Zak sighed.

After what seemed like forever to Zak (1 Minute 10 Seconds). He heard the bushes rustling as someone walked through them.

"Hey!" Doyle shouted once he spotted Zak. "I found the kid."

The rest of the family soon followed.

Zak was annoyed. Yes, very annoyed.

"My name's Zak! Not kid!" Zak shouted.

"Yeah, whatever." Doyle replied, not caring that Zak was annoyed.

Zak glared.

Drew stepped forward. "Have you thought about coming with us? You're not safe here."

Zak jumped down from the rock. "Yeah, I have. I want you guys to leave me alone and leave! I don't need someone to protect me! And even if I did, which I don't, I don't even know you people! For all I know you could be on the same side as Argost!" Zak snapped, he crossed his arms defiantly against his chest.

The family looked shocked at the hybrid's statement.

"What?" Doc exclaimed. "You think we work with Argost?"

"Well, it's not like I know you guys." Zak pointed out again.

Drew sighed. "This is getting us nowhere."

"You're right! I'm leaving! And you better not follow me!" Zak said. Turning to walk away.

Fiskerton, out of desperation, grabbed Zak's arm and started mumbling reasons that Zak should come with them. The gorilla cat did not want to see him get hurt or worse by Argost or his henchmen.

"Hey!" Zak yanked his arm out of Fiskerton's furry grasp and before he realized the big mistake he was about to make, made wolf-like snarling and growling sounds one would not normally hear from a normal eleven year old human kid.

Realizing his mistake he attempted to cover with a cough. It didn't work.

The family looked – well, they looked like they didn't really know what to think.

"Did you just growl at us?" Drew asked.

Zak hesitated, trying to figure out what to say to get himself out of the situation. "Uh... No. It was probably some animal off somewhere growling to some other animal who was probably trying to take it's food or something."

'_Yeah. That works.' _He thought.

"No, I think that was you..." Doyle said, not really buying Zak's story.

Fiskerton grunted to say that he thought it was Zak who made the dog-like noises too.

"Oh hey! You know what?" The young hybrid turned to Fiskerton. "You were talking so fast when you grabbed my arm I couldn't tell what you were saying. Why don't you explain that to me now?" Zak put a thoughtful look at his face, as if he was listening intently to an interesting story.

Fiskerton shook his head, he, as was the rest of the family, were still curious as to where the growling sounds had come from.

'_They're not buying it! What do I do now?' _Zak urgently thought to himself. He had to think of some sort of excuse. After a second, he though of an idea.

"Look, I don't know whether you guys are imagining things or what but I don't what to go with you!" Zak shouted.

Zak wanted them to forget all about the growling, so he tried to bring their thoughts back to why they where there in the first place.

Zak decided it was time to leave. And quick as a flash, before any of the Saturdays knew it, he had disappeared.

Suddenly, as fast as he had left, he was back. But this time he had a serious look on his face. "**Don't **try to follow me!" He warned, and then he was gone again.

The new discoveries of the mysterious kid known as Zak troubled the family.

This kid had once again escaped them. And they were sure the growling had come from him… Maybe. Though, they had absolutely no idea as to _how_, if it had been Zak, he had growled so animal like. He was human after all… Wasn't he? They immediately discarded the idea, there was no way Zak wasn't human. It just wouldn't make sense. **(AN: This coming from the family who tracks down mythological creatures for a living?)**

They decided that Zak would certainly not be back that same day, and noting his mysterious behavior, the family went back to their giant orange airship. Perplexed by the mysteries of Zak.

* * *

Zak, after putting good distance between himself and the Saturdays, shifted into wolf form. As he was trotting through the chilly forest he hoped that his plan had worked. Sure it may not have been the smartest one, Zak realized, but he wanted to get them to focus on something other than the growling. Still, the growling would be much more interesting to them, but he had had to try something.

A little later he followed the Saturday's scent back to town, confirming that they had, in fact, gone back to their airship. Zak spent the rest of the day doing various activities like playing in the water and hunting whatever caught his eye. So basically he stalked butterflies while he was soaking wet.

* * *

Soon it was night and Zak settled down to sleep, once again hoping for advice from his parents.

Zak: Oooooohhh! Long chapter!

White Wolf: I know! I know! I know! *White Wolf Victoriously Howls At Moon*

Sorry this took so long guys. '-_- But I hope you enjoyed anyway! ^_^

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	9. Dream Visitors

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 9: Dream Visitors

Zak sighed. There was still no sign of his parents in his dreams. He wondered if they would ever walk in his dreams again. He knew it was very hard for them to talk to him now, but he had still been hoping they would somehow. They've only went into his dreams very few times in years. One day they may never be able to see him again.

Zak sighed again. He wasn't going to let himself be found by the Saturdays today. He'd had enough talking to them. He wished they'd leave. For good.

The rest of his morning was normal, but in the afternoon, he had to look out for the Saturdays and ignore them.

It was rather easy considering he could easily scent them whenever they got too close.

Zak spent the rest of his day doing various activities away from the family who had pretty much given up their search for him.

* * *

~ Evening - At Saturday Airship ~

"What should we do now?" Doyle asked. "We can't stay here forever trying to convince that kid to go with strangers he just met and I don't think he likes us very much either."

"I don't know, but it doesn't feel right to just leave him when Argost is probably planning to kidnap him and get rid of the threat Zak creates to him by having powers that could potentially stop him from achieving the world domination Argost has been working towards for the past eleven years." Drew took a breath after her long speech.

Zon cawed, Komodo hissed, and Fisk grumbled, all three were in agreement. They may not even know the odd human child but they liked him and didn't want Argost to hurt him.

"Well we have to do something, if we don't, someone else will. And I'm not just talking about Argost. The Secret Scientists may come here to find him themselves. And I don't think they'll take no for an answer." Doc sighed.

Danger was approaching fast, and they had no idea how to stop it.

* * *

~ Middle Of The Night - Zak's Dream ~

There were flowers… Lots of flowers. Pretty white ones with spots of several colors were all over the place mingled in with several more species of plants.

Zak wasn't exactly sure what was going on, the last thing he remembered was falling asleep…

It suddenly dawned on the wolf hybrid. _'This must be a dream.' _He realized.

He lied down on the soft green grass to watch a shiny white flower with light green and purple dots scattered on its petals, ride on the slight breeze. Where said breeze was coming from, he had no idea. But the flower was shiny. And Zak _really_ liked shiny things.

Zak stared, eyes wide and transfixed on the shiny source, oblivious to the dream world around him.

"I see you still like shiny things." A soft, gentle voice brought Zak out of his trance-like state.

"Mom?" Zak gasped.

A white wolf appeared and stepped towards Zak, close behind her was a black wolf.

The white wolf had all soft white fur that was slightly fluffier than her companion's and light blue eyes. Her companion, on the other hand, had all black fur and dark brown eyes.

Zak quickly shifted into wolf form and ran to the other wolves as fast as his paws would go, which is pretty fast.

"Oh I missed you guys so much!" Zak said, while excitedly jumping up and down.

"I know, we've missed you too." The white wolf exclaimed. She nuzzled Zak lovingly.

"I'm so proud of you." The black wolf said.

Zak's glowing orange eyes shined with pleasure. Not only was he reunited with his parents but his father was proud of him!

"Mom! Dad! I'm so glade you're here!"

The reunited family happily hugged, at least as much of a hug wolves could do.

Zak suddenly remembered his current situation and he quickly filled them in on the current details.

"What do I do? What do I do? I don't know what to do!" Zak begged for an answer.

"Calm down." His mother said calmly. Zak's parents were not ones to panic.

That calmed Zak down a little, but not a lot.

"Ok, but, I still don't know what to do," Zak said quietly, "I mean, apparently there's a crazy madman after me because of my powers!"

"And there's this weird family wanting me to go with them but I don't even know anything about them!" Zak continued. "And I they say that my powers are the only thing that could stop this Cryptid, Kur. And I know, Dad, that you always say there's another way but apparently neither them or the crazy madman seem to think so!"

"You still have a knack for getting into trouble. Something's never change do they" Zak's father laughed jokingly.

"It's not funny dad!" Zak scowled.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Zak's father apologized.

"Oh come now, Benji, this is no time for jokes." Zak's mother scolded and bopped him on the head gently with her paw.

"Right, back on target." Benji said, he copied her and playfully bopped her with his black paw. "Thanks, Aria. Sometimes I get off track."

Aria shook her head and sighed.

Zak just laughed.

The laugh was short lived though, for Zak still didn't know what to do.

"Sweetie, you know we're not always going to be able to come rescue you when you're in trouble," Aria said sadly "And this may be the last time we can ever come back to see you."

Zak suddenly felt as if his whole world came crashing down on top of him.

"Wh-what?" He croaked.

Aria and Benji both looked just as heartbroken as Zak did.

"We're sorry honey." Aria managed to say, tears starting to form in her eyes. "We're sorry we've never been able to be good parents to you." She was crying now, tears flowed freely from her blue eyes. Benji, too, had tears in his brown eyes.

"No, no, no, no! You guys have been great parents!" Zak insisted. "What happened wasn't your fault!"

His voice dropped "You can't leave me all alone…" Stray tears fell from his face now too.

"You're never alone." Benji said, he looked at Aria, "We'll always be with you."

"In your heart." Aria continued.

Zak's wolf ears drooped. "I know..."

Aria now had a more serious look on her face. "Go with the Saturdays…. They'll take good care of you…. They're a nice family.." She choked. She felt like she was losing her baby all over again.

Benji wanted to comfort her, but he knew that no amount of comforting could ease the pain they both were feeling.

"Ok Mom." Zak didn't know what else to say. To him, his life was being torn apart all over again.

"We have to go now…." His mother said sadly, but gently.

"Remember to never forget who you are,"

"And that we love you so much" Aria and Benji said in unison.

"I love you guys too." Zak said.

Zak's parents started to fade.

Aria felt miserable, Benji felt miserable, Zak felt miserable.

Aria felt she was throwing her beloved baby to the wolf-eating lions, Benji felt he was abandoning his son, and Zak, though he knew his parents would never abandon him, still felt abandoned.

"Bye." Zak said sadly.

The scene faded to black.

* * *

Zak woke up suddenly and looked around. It was very early in the morning. Normally he would have just gone back to sleep, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to no matter how hard he tried.

He felt sad. He may never see his parents again. Ever. He'd known that day would come eventually but it felt like it was just too soon.

Zak did the only thing he could think of, he cried. He didn't care if anyone saw him, he didn't care if the Saturdays suddenly showed up, he didn't care if Argost or any of his minions showed up to capture him. Right now, he just didn't care.

His life was spinning out of control. And there was nothing he could do about it.

* * *

It was now later in the morning, Zak had spent some time crying and venting his sad emotions, but now he decided that he was going to take his mother's advice and go with the Saturdays. However, he also decided that he would not be cooperating fully. He saw some pranks in the family's future. Not anything that might hurt them thought. Annoy them, yes, hurt, no.

But before he left his home, he had some things to do. Some very important things.

Zak was glaring. Before he left, he wanted one last glare session with the pointy death trap bush. It looked smug, oh yes it looked smug. But Zak would show it.

After he was done glaring at the death trap, he thought he would finally talk to the blond-haired woman whom recently had been identified as Alesha. He wanted at least one person to know he was real.

Also, he couldn't wait to see the stunned look on her face.

* * *

As he had imagined, it had been priceless. She had been so shocked she actually fell off the bench she had been sitting on while feeding several birds and squirrels. They had talked for a minute about random things. Then he had mysteriously left suddenly. After all, he still had a reputation of mysteriousness to uphold.

Oddly, the Saturdays seemed to have given up. They hadn't left the town but they hadn't come out of their airship to search for him. They were in for quite a surprise.

But first, Zak still had some stuff to do. He hunted, caught and released several more butterflies. He swam and got soaking wet in the stream, howled on his cliff, and lay on the grass in the morning sun for the last time.

He sighed, it was time to leave his home for the unknown.

Zak slowly walked through the forest in wolf form toward the giant orange airship. His head was low. It was hard to leave the place he had been calling home for so long.

He took one last look around. He would miss this forest.

Shifting to human form, he was now standing just outside the clearing the family had parked their ship on.

He silently wondered how he was going to get their attention. Was he supposed to just find some door to knock on?

Zak's dilemma over, he suddenly spotted an open window that he could get into. **(AN: I really have no idea if the airship has any kind of window that'll open but oh well.) **

He was going to be mischievous and surprise them by climbing in the window.

Zak positioned himself under the window and jumped really high to grab onto the ledge. He smiled mischievously as he easily grabbed the ledge and pulled himself into the airship.

He found himself in a bedroom of some sort, but it didn't seem like anyone ever used it.

The hybrid jumped a little as the big metal door slid open when he got close to it.

He ventured into the hall, after walking a bit, there were several doors on either side of him. Some more walking proved rewarding when he scented cookies. But there was a problem, there were people in the room too.

Zak quietly peaked through the doorway. It seemed to be a kitchen-like room and he saw the orange Mohawk guy and the Fiskerton Phantom sitting around a table. But what interested him most was the plate with a pile of cookies sitting on the counter.

They smelled very good to Zak. When the two occupants of the room were busy arguing over things that he really didn't care about, Zak sneakily crept toward his prey. Careful to make as little noise as possible, he sneakily grabbed the top cookie and snuck back into the hall.

'_They don't suspect a thing….' _He thought victoriously.

To the wolf's delight, the cookie turned out to be even better than it smelled.

Zak was munching on his cookie when he suddenly felt like he was moving.

As it turned out, he was. The airship was moving. The Saturdays were headed home, seemingly defeated. What they were unaware of however was the extra hybrid passenger eating a cookie.

Zak wandered into the main area, where Doc and Drew were driving in front of giant window-like windows. **(AN: You know in the TV show they sometimes show that place in the airship.) **They didn't notice Zak enter the room.

The sight of the forest passing beneath them amazed Zak. _'Wow.' _He thought as he looked at the green blur passing beneath the airship.

Doc and Drew suddenly started talking to each other, still oblivious about the extra passenger.

Drew sighed, "What do we do now? Zak isn't ever going to come with us, and honestly I don't blame him. He doesn't even know the first thing about us."

"I don't think there's anything else we can do."

"Yeah, I know." Drew sighed again.

"There's no way he's just going to come onto the airship willingly." She joked.

Zak laughed silently.

He approached the couple from behind, as fun as it was to sneak around, he decided to alert them to his presence.

He stood right behind Drew.

"Where're we going?" He asked suddenly, still munching his cookie.

"Home." She answered automatically.

Realizing the voice was not anyone she thought was on the airship, she craned her neck to look behind her seat.

She gaped, lost for words.

"What are you doing here?" She shouted, finding her voice. This got Doc's attention, who was also shocked at Zak's sudden appearance.

Zak looked fake hurt. "But I thought you wanted me to come with you?"

"How did you get in here?" Doc asked, ignoring Zak's fake hurt question.

"Through a window." Zak smiled.

"A window?" Doc raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. A window." Zak replied like it was nothing out of ordinary, taking a bite out of his cookie.

The couple were about to continue asking him questions when Doyle and Fiskerton came rushing in with Zon and Komodo shortly behind them.

"I'm telling you there is one cookie missing!" Doyle insisted to Fiskerton.

"There was-" He stopped when he saw Zak, cookie in hand, standing there looking bored.

"Told you." He told Fiskerton matter-of-factly.

For the next while Zak explained to the surprised family that he had changed his mind about accompanying them, he left out the dream thought, and the fact that he was half-wolf, or course, was also still left out.

So Zak found himself being dragged around the airship by Fisk with Komodo and Zon following, they all seemed pleased that Zak was with them.

Zak was on a new adventure.

* * *

White Wolf: *Sniff* *Sniff*

Zak: What's wrong?

White Wolf: *Sniff* I was looking back at all the reviews and stuff and everyone's been so nice and supportive! *Sniff* Even when updating is always so slow! *Sob* They're so nice to me! *Sob*

White Wolf: Thanks you everybody! ^_^ ^_^ I really, really appreciate it! ^_^

Hey I know the last couple chapters have been about the same thing but now because of this chapter we can finally get onto more exciting stuff! ^_^ ^_^

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	10. Welcome To Saturday HQ, Zak

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 10: Welcome To Saturday HQ, Zak

During the short time that Zak has been with the Saturdays, he already had gotten into loads of trouble, both accidental and intentional.

It had only been a couple hours since they all had gotten back to Saturday HQ, in that time Zak had blown several things up, flooded one room, accidentally set fire to another, dropped a bucket filled with water onto almost all of the Saturdays, dug a giant hole in the backyard (with a shovel in human form) and then proceeded to bury various things he had found around the HQ in an isolated corner of the backyard.

Oh yes, Zak has been busy.

'_Cup,' _He dropped a plastic cup into the deep hole. _'Check.'_

'_A bag with one piece of every puzzle,' _There goes someone's hope of finishing any of those puzzles…

* * *

"Almost there..." Only 3 more pieces to go. "So close…" Only 2 left. "Even closer…" And then there was 1. "Finally, the final piece." The only remaining piece fell into place. "Yes! Finally! It's - huh?" Doyle noticed there was a gap in the middle of the kitten puzzle he'd been working on. There was a piece missing. "NOOOOO!"

* * *

'_Spoon, a key to something, one walkie-talkie, encyclopedia, a disc with… something on it, I don't know what it is, and it doesn't have a label… oh well, with any luck, it's important!' _He grinned mischievously.

Zak filled in the hole and covered it with grass. He then stood back to admire his hard work.

'_Doesn't look like anything happened.' _He thought proudly. Happy about his achievement to hid a giant hole and make it look like nothing had been buried.

"ZAK!" An angry yell suddenly echoed through the trees and all the birds flew away…

'_Uh oh.' _Zak thought. Whoever that was sounded really angry… Zak wondered what they could be mad about. But, in the end, he had done so much mischievous things that day he couldn't single out any one of them.

He figured the person was looking for him so he quickly ran and put the shovel back where he'd found it so no one would realize he had even been there.

* * *

"Where is he?" Doc, who was soaking wet, shouted angrily.

Doc had been walking into a room, when, all of a sudden, he found himself all wet with a bucket on his head.

Due to the havoc bringing Zak into the Saturday home had created, Doc was positive who the culprit was.

Doc stormed down the hall, looking every which way for the troublemaking visitor. His wife was following behind him, trying to calm him down before he found Zak. She too had been a victim of their guest's pranks, as well as the rest of the family, but she still wanted Zak to live to see the age of 12. Of course, Doc wouldn't hurt Zak, but she still thought that her husband needed to calm down and Zak needed to learn that he couldn't just walk into someone's house and do whatever he pleased.

"Doc, Doc, calm down. He's just a kid!" She said.

"That _kid _has caused more havoc in this house in a couple _hours _than has **ever** been caused in _years_!"

"I'm sure he didn't mean to…" Drew lied. Everyone knew that everything Zak had done wasn't all accidents.

"He did." Doc replied bluntly. "And you know it."

"Alright, he did." She sighed. "But calm down, yelling isn't going to solve anything. It might even make things worse."

Doc realized that his wife had a point.

"Right." He calmed down. "I just don't want to have to use an umbrella in my own home."

"Me neither." Drew continued. "But he has to be doing this for a reason."

"He may just like tormenting people…"

"Could be. But it might not. Let's go talk to him and see if we can come up with some sort of peace treaty."

By then, the rest of the family (minus Zak) had come to see what was going on and they all agreed. Zak's antics had to stop.

* * *

Zak, after putting the shovel back, made his way to the living room, or at least, it seemed the closest thing to a living room the giant headquarters had, using his wolf senses to avoid running into whoever the water had fallen onto this time. He made himself look all innocent by grabbing some soda before sitting down to watch some TV. Though he had no doubt they knew it was him, he'd humor himself by acting all innocent.

The family entered, looking serious. Zak noted that Doc was soaked. So his bucket had fallen on Doc…

"Zak." Drew looked kinda… mad, but was keeping her cool none the less. "You need to stop with all your pranks. And I mean _all _of them."

The hybrid faked a confused, innocent look. "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what!" Doyle shouted angrily. "You **flooded **a room!"

"Maybe." Zak lied.

"Uh huh. And what about the one you set on fire?" Drew inquired.

"Hey! The fire really was an accident!" Zak defended.

"So you admit the flooding wasn't?"

"Possibly."

"Possibly?" Drew rolled her eyes. "Why are you doing this? Why are you so intent on doing all of this?"

'_That's a good question…' _Zak thought. _'__**Why **__am I doing this?'_

Perhaps he was angry at the Saturdays for uprooted the happy life he had made for himself in the forest? Maybe… Zak didn't know so he stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

Drew sighed. "Just stop it, ok?" With that the family went back to whatever they'd been doing.

Zak was left to wonder why he really was dumping water on people, flooding a room, and burying things.

* * *

"_Run!" A voice said. Zak couldn't tell who._

'_Run?' Zak thought, confused and disoriented. 'Why do I need to run?'_

_Suddenly something behind him exploded, and whatever it was, it was close._

* * *

Zak gasped. Suddenly he was back in his temporary room at the Saturdays' HQ, sitting up in the bed.

'_What was that?' _Zak thought. Though he might never admit it, the dream had slightly scared him.

The wolf-human hybrid glanced at the clock. _1:47 AM_.

"1:47 in the morning?" Zak grumbled "Could've at least waiting a couple more hours before waking me up…"

It'd been a long day for Zak. Between being moved to a new place with people he barely knew, and playing pranks on them, he was exhausted.

He ran a hand through his unique hair, sighing. He wasn't sure if he would get back to sleep anytime soon, exhausted or not.

He decided to go explore the grounds a bit more, he'd go back to sleep when he was done.

Zak quietly slipped the covers off and slid off of the large bed and onto the soft floor.

Sure, he was in his pajamas, but that didn't stop him.

Zak quietly snuck past the other rooms, luckily not waking anyone.

As he got farther down the hall he heard quiet voices. Obviously whoever it was didn't want to wake anyone.

Zak's curiosity took over and he forgot all about going outside.

He followed the voices to a room that seemed to be some kind of communication center.

Luckily, thanks to his super good hearing, he eavesdropped, well, with ease. **(AN: Lolz. ^_^ Eavesdropped with ease.)**

"… Kidding? He's a nightmare! He flooded a room! That's not kid curiosity." A voice said, annoyed. Zak recognized it as Drew's. He also could scent Doc too.

A voice that Zak didn't recognize responded. "He can't be that bad. Surely he wouldn't intentionally flood a room."

"He is and he did, Paul." Doc answered this time.

Paul? That must have been who the voice was.

Another new voice cut in. "So what are you going to do? Take him back where you found him?"

"We don't know…" Drew sighed. "If we take him back Argost will surely find him and if Argost finds Zak…" She trailed.

"We can kiss stopping Kur goodbye." The 2nd voice interrupted.

"Now, Arthur, there has got to be another way." A third voice said, but unlike the other two this voice was female. "An eleven-year old child couldn't possibly be the _only _chance we have of stopping Kur if it's released."

"Technically Miranda, it's not the kid, it's the powers." The first voice, Paul, pointed out.

"That is true, but it's the kid who has the powers, and it's the kid who can use them… He can use them, right?" Miranda asked skeptical.

"Yes, he saved Fiskerton from a Cryptid. Actually, he saved all of us from Cryptids." Drew admitted.

"Well, at least he can use them." Arthur said.

"He's still a pain." Doc muttered.

"What are you planning to do about it?" Paul asked.

"I don't know. We can't even figure out _why _he's doing it." Drew replied.

"Maybe he just wants some attention. Kids do that sometimes." Paul guessed.

"Maybe, but I think there's more going on that that." Drew contemplated. "But, anyway, it's late. We should go. We need all the sleep we can get to be on the lookout for more of Zak's surprises."

Said kid realized they were about to come out of the room and catch him listening in. He quickly, but quietly, snuck back to his room.

Once there, the hybrid yawned. He crawled back into his bed and quickly fell into a dreamless sleep. Exploring outside could wait until morning.

* * *

Zak: I buried stuff in the backyard. *Grins Proudly*

White Wolf: You been a bad boy, Zaky! *Scolds*

Zak: Says wolf who put dynamite in Van Rook's bag…..

White Wolf: He had it comin_g_.

Zak: He stole your bone.

White Wolf: Exactly. *Grabs Bone And Trots Away*

Oh dear… Zak and the Saturdays aren't getting along very well….

Sorry about the OCness in this chapter…. '-_- And, again, so sorry about the wait, but my life got really hectic a couple months ago.

Also, it's the middle of the night, and I still have homework, so I didn't really proofread…..

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	11. A Wet Wolf Still Swims

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 11: A Wet Wolf Still Swims

"Where's Zak?" Doyle asked the next morning, just now realizing the troublemaker had been absent for breakfast and hadn't been seen since the day before.

"Probably filling some buckets with water…" Doc sighed in anticipation of the soggy day to come.

* * *

Though filling buckets he was not, Zak was doing something with water. He had taken to swimming in the big pool-like thing where the Saturdays had some submarine-type thing. **(AN: Remember that place from the episode Guess Who's Going To Be Dinner?)**

Because he did not go exploring in the surrounding forest the day before, or the night before, once he woke up he decided that it was a good time to do so, after breakfast of course, though he only grabbed something to gobble down quickly.

The forest in the morning hours was peaceful. There had been some birds chirping away at Zak as he passed by.

After exploring for awhile, Zak went back to explore more of the headquarters. During this exploration he stumbled upon the area he was currently swimming in.

Zak had fun seeing how far down he could dive before having to come up for air.

But, alas, the curious hybrid's fun could not last forever, as it was soon lunchtime and he got hungry.

He made his way back up to the kitchen-like room for lunch, dripping a trail of water the entire way.

* * *

Drew was less than pleased with her new wet floor. Firmly scolding Zak and asking him where he got all wet.

However, Zak wasn't really listening to the scolding but he did manage to catch the question.

So he told them the truth, he'd been exploring and found the wet wonderland. And, being the fun-loving kid he was, decided to go for a swim.

They looked annoyed, but continued eating anyway.

It was after lunch when Fiskerton declared that Zak smelled like wet dog. Zak glared at this comment, but before he could retort, there was an incoming call.

It was the Secret Scientists reporting a Cryptid attacking a city.

Doc and Drew agreed to go and help.

After the Secret Scientists hung up, Zak jumped up and down, excited.

"Ooh! Ooh! I wanna go! I wanna go!"

Drew sighed. "I don't know…" She didn't want to be rewarding Zak's bad behavior.

"We might need his help." Doc pointed out. He didn't want to reward Zak either, but it was true that Zak could help them with the Cryptid.

"Fine, you can go-"

"Yay!" Zak exclaimed happily.

"But," Drew continued "You need to go clean up the water trail you made."

"Ok."

"And disable whatever pranks you had set up for today."

"Aw…"

Though unhappy about it, in the end Zak obliged with her conditions, dried his water trail and took down his pranks, but not without some muttering about how he had been looking forward to seeing the traps being sprung.

* * *

Zak: Aw…. I wanted to see them falling into my traps….. *Pouts*

White Wolf: And mine….. *Whines*

Zak: When did you set up traps?

*Suddenly Zak is soaking wet with a bucket on his head*

White Wolf: Just now. *Grins*

Zak: *Grumbles*

So this was more of a filler chapter. And short. But hey, at least it's a chapter. ^_^

Please review!

~White Wolf Out~


	12. Capture Of The Wild Wolf

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

And before we get on with the story, Godzillaking279 () mentioned where's the Claw. I'm gonna be honest here, I totally forgot about it. Sorry Claw…. '-_- But, the Claw is in this chapter! ^_^

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 12: Capture Of The Wild Wolf

Zak was so excited to be going on a mission he couldn't stay still. Well, less than usual. But as the excitement started to wear off, he realized he was pretty tired from waking up in the middle of the night.

The wolf hybrid yawned cutely.

"Tired, Zak?" Doyle turned around to look at him. "You should be. You were very busy yesterday torturing us."

Zak laughed quietly.

The hybrid watched the fluffy clouds go by out the window with little interest.

As more time went by in silence, Zak started to fall asleep in his chair. At the moment there was nothing else to do but stare at the clouds.

* * *

By the time they reached the city in distress, Zak was practically asleep.

"We're here." Doc announced.

Zak immediately woke up and his head shot up like a rocket. "We are?" He looked out the window. "Cool!"

All traces of sleepiness gone, Zak sprinted out of the airship.

"Wait!" Drew futilely called after him. The family, for the thousandth time that day, wondered what they were getting themselves into by taking care of Zak.

"Does he ever listen?" No, not really…

Zak ran to the city at full speed, which was pretty fast, not even looking back to see if the Saturdays were following him or not.

At the city he saw a bunch of people running away screaming. Probably from the roaring Amarok. Yeah, that's it.

'_Alright! Action time!' _Zak thought excitedly, whipping out the Claw.

The Amarok roared and swiped the air in front of it with its long claws when it saw Zak coming towards it. If there had been anything in front of it, well, the claws would have left some nasty claw marks.

**(AN: Ok, I'm apologizing in advance for whatever bad fighting scene follows. '-_-)**

The end of the Claw glowed orange as Zak tried to calm the Cryptid down with his powers.

The Cryptid roared. Zak's Cryptid powers weren't working.

Zak focused harder; the Amarok's eyes glowed orange.

'_Something's wrong… This is not normal.' _Zak thought. His powers were working, but the Cryptid's mind was… Blank… Like the Amarok was being… Controlled?

The hybrid was so focused on trying to figure out what was going on that when the Amarok took the opportunity to strike, Zak didn't notice until it was too late.

Luckily, he was merely thrown against a building and didn't get clawed.

'_Uhg. Right. Focus.' _Zak thought, picking himself off of the ground.

Meanwhile, the Saturdays had finally arrived at the scene.

Zak ran up to them. "Something's wrong with this Cryptid!"

They looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"It's like the Amarok isn't in control of itself…" Zak explained.

Doyle looked skeptical. "How would it not be in control of itself? If it is being controlled, then who's controlling it?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Zak said.

"I never said you knew." Doyle pointed out.

Fiskerton grumbled and redirected everyone's attention back to the enraged Amarok destroying the city.

"Oh, yeah. We should probably take care of that." The Amarok roared as Zak ran back into battle with the fierce dog-like creature.

Zak dodged the Cryptid's claws and attempted to use his powers again.

Just like last time, Zak's powers had no effect.

'_Time for another tactic!' _Zak thought.

He used the Claw's grappling cord to bind the Cryptid up. It worked for a moment but the Amarok soon broke free.

Zak jumped on the snarling brown Cryptid's back.

'_What is that?' _Zak thought, looking at a strange yellow winged bug-like machine attached to the Cryptid's neck.

Zak reached out and hesitantly touched it. At once it started to crackled and smoke.

"Uh oh."

The machine was thrown to the ground by the Amarok, who'd apparently gained enough control over itself to reach up a snatch the odd looking machine from its neck.

Zak used his Cryptid powers to calm it down now that that weird thing was off of it. He didn't know how, but it seemed like it had been the machine that had been controlling the Amarok the entire time.

The end of the Claw, Zak's eyes and the Amarok's eyes glowed orange. The raging Amarok calmed down and obediently sat down and to everyone's shock, started wagging its tail like a puppy.

"Oh, who's a good Cryptid!" Zak smiled, scratching the Amarok's head.

Meanwhile the Saturdays were to shocked to speak, looking at the scene with saucer-sized eyes. A large aggressive Cryptid that was raging only moments before was sitting down and acting like a puppy while Zak petted it.

After giving the Amarok one last pat, Zak turned back to inspect the strange yellow bug-machine that had caused all the trouble.

"What is this thing?" Zak wondered, staring down at the destroyed bug-machine.

He bent down and picked it up by the scorpion-like tail to inspect it.

"Zak! Put that down!" Drew screeched frantically once she saw what he was holding.

The hybrid turned to her in confusion. "Why? It's broken anyway."

"I don't care just put it down!"

"Oook…" Zak dropped it back onto the ground and it landed with a thud blowing a small cloud of dust around it as it landed in the dirt.

"Sooo… Why did I have to put it down?" Zak asked.

By now the Amarok had gone back to wherever it had come from, and the rest of the family had crowded near the bug-machine, but they were still cautious.

"That's a Neural Parasite. Argost uses them to control people, and apparently Cryptids." Doc studied the fallen parasite.

"What!" Zak stared at the Neural Parasite with a shocked look.

"He must have been using it to control the Amarok, but why?" Doyle said.

"I don't know." Drew responded.

No one noticed a small metallic thing quietly moving towards them.

Doyle kicked the ground in frustration at not knowing what Argost was up to, throwing up another dust cloud that ended up floating around Zak, making him sneeze.

Komodo, meanwhile, had discovered the thing made out of metal that had planted itself a small distance away.

"Komodo, what are you doing over there?" Doc asked, seeing the camouflaging reptile stray away from the group and put a metallic thing in his mouth.

Komodo spit the metallic thing out, deciding he wasn't hungry for metal at the moment.

Doc looked at the metal thing and realized that it was a small bomb-like thing.

The Saturdays quickly ran away, thinking that Zak was right behind them, but actually Zak was still sneezing because of the dust and had yet to notice the family's absence or the danger.

Drew noticed that Zak was still standing near the bomb.

"Run!"

'_Run?' _Zak thought, confused and still slightly disoriented from sneezing. _'Why do I need to run?'_

Suddenly the bomb exploded close to poor unsuspecting Zak.

Zak was thrown to the ground by the force, but luckily the bomb wasn't very powerful so he only had a couple of scratches and was not seriously injured.

The secretly wolf hybrid got back onto his feet within seconds despite the surprise of a small explosion going off near him.

"What was that!" Zak shouted.

"An explosion, and a rather small one indeed." Suddenly Argost's airship appeared overhead. It seemed to be transmitting the TV host's voice.

"Argost!" Drew shouted angrily "It was you who was controlling the Amarok wasn't it?"

"You are correct, my dear, the Amarok was merely bait."

"Bait? Bait for what?" Doyle, once again, scowled at not knowing what Argost was up to.

"Help! I'm being Zaknapped! He-" Zak's shriek was cut off when Munya, who had climbed down from Argost's creepy-looking airship while everyone was preoccupied and snuck up and grabbed Zak from behind, put his large pink-purple hand on Zak's mouth to silence him.

Zak struggled wildly while Munya, in spider form, tried to subdue him. But the part spider man would soon realize that putting your hand near Zak's mouth when attempting to cause him harm was far from a good idea.

The human wolf hybrid flung his head to the side and succeeded in dislodging the large hand from his mouth. Then he bit down hard on Munya's hand.

Munya howled in both anger and pain. Though he did not know it at the time, he was lucky that Zak had been in human form when he bit him because in wolf form the eleven year old's teeth were much sharper and he could bit much harder.

Zak was released instantly and dropped to the ground.

"Gah! I'll catch him myself!" Argost shouted angrily from his airship.

Only a moment after being freed, Zak suddenly found himself trapped inside a net that was launched from Argost's ship.

He tried to untangle himself but only managed to further get himself hopelessly entangled in the netting.

Zak tried to kick at Munya when he picked up the net that currently had the energetic hybrid trapped, but was too tangled up to do much of anything.

The Saturdays tried to help, but suddenly a wall of smoke blocked their path and view.

When the smoke finally cleared, only the family remained.

Zak had been captured by Argost.

* * *

White Wolf: Oh noes! Zaky I wills save you! *Battle Howl*

Zak: Um… I'm right here….

White Wolf: *Happy Giggle* I rescued you fast didn't I?

Zak: *Sweat Drop* …. But I was only captured in the story…. You never really rescued me….

White Wolf: Humph. Well I would've rescued you. *Pouts*

White Wolf: *Suddenly Moves Onto Totally New Subject* Hey did you know that this story is a year old! Yay! ^_^ And it has 102 reviews! ^_^

Everyone: Happy Holidays! And Happy New Year!

Ok so I think we have to accept that fast updates are rare… '-_- But at least I update, right?

Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone, and since I probably won't update until after New Years, Happy New Year too! ^_^

Please review!

~White Wolf Out~


	13. Regrets Of A Captured Kid

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 13: Regrets Of A Captured Kid

Zak blinked his eyes open, it was immediately apparent to him that whatever he was leaning against was no pillow. In fact it was a dungeon wall, which is not typically known to be the comfiest thing in the world.

The last thing he remembered was being in a net and being carried away against his will.

He'd been captured!

He quickly got up and inspected the room.

The walls were a dirty light brown color and, to Zak's dismay, both the walls and the floor were made of something very hard so he couldn't possibly dig his way to freedom.

There were no lights in the cell, but light shown in from the hallway through the bars on the little window in the door so the room was slightly illuminated.

Zak looked into the hallway but all he saw was an empty hall, not that he expected much more.

He sighed and sat with his back against the wall and waited.

* * *

Zak wasn't sure how long he'd been waiting, even though it felt like years, he suspected it had been only a few hours.

During his wait he entertained himself with drawing some pictures in the dirt that'd collected in his cell after years and years.

"I see you're entertaining yourself." Zak's head snapped up and he saw the dead-smelling captor himself.

The captured hybrid glared fiercely.

"I do hope you're enjoying your stay at my mansion."

"Well, it's not worth 5 stars, but I would enjoy a pizza." Zak smiled mischievously.

Argost was not amused. "You joke, but did you know that the only reason the Saturday family took you in was because you have the potential to control Kur."

Zak's smile faded. He knew that the Saturdays had only wanted him to go with them because of his Cryptid powers but Argost was making it sound like the family was after Kur to take over the world or something.

"As soon as they're done with you, they'll throw you out onto the street, without even looking back." Argost continued.

"I highly doubt they'll come and rescue you. Especially after keeping such a secret from them." Argost's creepy laugh echoed as he left Zak alone in the dungeon.

Zak knew Argost was trying to trick him, manipulate him into thinking the Saturdays were the bad guys.

What really scared Zak though is how Argost seemed to know he was keeping a secret. Did he know he was part wolf? Zak pushed it out of his mind, he didn't want to think about that right now.

But, even so, Zak doubted the Saturdays were coming to get him. They were probably glad he was gone. And he couldn't blame them. After all he'd played numerous pranks on them, and all they'd done was try to protect him.

He felt like a jerk.

'_Why'd I do all that stuff?' _Zak asked himself.

Maybe he was subconsciously mad at them for taking him away from his life in the forest? Or maybe he was just scared to get close to another family.

* * *

"We have to rescue Zak!" Drew said frantically. "Who knows what Argost will do to him! Could be doing to him right now!"

The family was now back inside their airship, planning their next move.

"I know, we're going to go rescue him." Doc sighed. "No matter how annoying he is."

* * *

~ 20 Minutes Later ~

The entire family was on edge. They hoped they could rescue Zak before something bad happened to him.

Suddenly an alarm started to go off. The airship was malfunctioning and they had to land before they crashed.

"What's going on?" Doyle asked, entering the command room.

"Something's wrong with the airship, we have to land." Doc explained.

All was grimly silent after that. It didn't need to be said that Zak would be stuck in Weird World until they got off the ground again.

The airship was inspected and it was determined that the problem was easily fixable, but it would take all night for the system to work again.

Reluctantly, the Saturdays fell into a restless sleep that night, hoping that Zak would be okay until the next day.

* * *

It was night now, Zak knew that much.

In the time he'd spent cooped up in the dungeon he'd decided that Weird World was a lot cooler on TV. Especially because smells couldn't come through the television.

He wasn't sure exactly how to describe it, but Weird World smelt mainly of death, pain and sorrow. It was sad. Very sad.

Zak yawned. It was late, and the night before he hadn't gotten as much sleep as he usually did because of that dream. The dream which he now knew had been a warning about his capture.

Though the truth is that even if Zak had known that Argost had been planning to capture him, he couldn't have just walked away and left the Amarok that had been being controlled to suffer.

Slowly, the wolf hybrid fell asleep. Hoping that Argost didn't know exactly what he was.

* * *

Zak: So what was the point of this chapter, really?

White Wolf: Well, I'm setting the stage for the next chapter! But you'll just have to wait to see!

White Wolf: Does Argost know? Does he?

Zak: I sure hope not…..

So again, I'm setting the stage for the next chapter! ^_^

Please review! Remember, more reviews equals more inspiration!

~White Wolf Out~


	14. The Enigma's Dreamwalk

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 14: The Enigma's Dreamwalk

Images flashed around him in all directions, but they were going to fast for him to see what they were.

He couldn't tell where he was, the last thing he remembered was falling asleep.

The images around him suddenly slowed down, they were still going pretty fast but at least he could make out what they were now.

Doyle looked at the images, trying to make sense of them. **(AN: You thought it was Zak didn't you? :3)**

He saw the Black Wolf they'd been looking for before they discovered Zak's Cryptid powers. He saw his family, The Saturdays. He saw Zak with a smile on his face that surly meant he'd blown something up. Again.

Then all the images stopped abruptly.

To his surprise, he saw Drew, Doc, Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon standing behind him, looking just as confused as he was.

"What's going on?" Drew asked confusedly.

No one answered. Most likely because none of them had any idea what was going on either.

The last thing any of them remember was falling asleep.

Suddenly their pitch black surrounding changed.

They were now standing in a green field that looked like it went on forever, like you could walk for years and still never even _see_ the end, let alone reach it.

If they'd had any idea at all of what was going on, it would have been very peaceful. The grass moved like the wind was blowing on it gently, but yet they couldn't feel any breeze. Up in the blue sky was the sun, it looked like it usually did, but there wasn't any warm feeling like there usually would be.

_"Look over there!"_ Fiskerton grunted and pointed to the left.

Zak was sitting several yards away, staring transfixed at the sky.

"Zak!"

The eleven-year old's attention landed on the family. His eyes widened in surprise. His mouth opened, but no words came out. He just stared.

Then his eyes saddened and he mouthed 'help'.

Then, suddenly, Zak was gone, along with the field.

Instead there were more images, though this time far less happy.

The images were of Weird World. Some of Cryptids that'd been on Argost's TV show. Several pictures of inside the mansion. Halls, rooms, doors and dungeons. And then the same halls, rooms, doors and dungeons in the exact same order all over again, and again, and again.

And then it all just stopped, and faded into nothingness.

* * *

"I had the weirdest dream last night." Drew said.

"Me too." Doyle replied.

The Saturdays were eating breakfast. As much as they wanted to go rescue Zak at that very second, they needed to eat. And they also weren't at Weird World yet. The airship was on autopilot and headed to Weird World while the family ate.

"Everyone was there, and there was a bunch of images." Drew explained the dream.

"… Like Weird World? And were we all standing in a field?" Doc asked.

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"I had that exact same dream."

"I did too." Doyle said.

"Did everyone have the same dream?" Drew asked, confused. And everyone said yes. This was getting weird, even for the Saturdays.

A beeping turned their attention away from the dream. They had arrived at Weird World.

"Let's go save Zak."

* * *

White Wolf: Gasp! They _all _had the same dream! Why! Why! Why? Oh wait. I already know. *Grins*

Zak: Hey! I'm barely in this chapter! And it's small!

White Wolf: Yeah I know it's short, but it's an important part for later sometime. And you'll be in the next one!

So yeah, more of a filler. But hey, at least it's a chapter! ^_^

Please review!

~White Wolf Out~


	15. Freedom At Last

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**Note, Please Read:**Ok so there's one thing I'd like to clear up before continuing to the story. In the last chapter at the end I said this:

They _all _had the same dream! Why! Why! Why?

I was being dramatic. This is from Chapter 7:

Since both his parents were DreamWalkers, Zak was to. This enabled him to – as the name suggests – walk in other creatures dreams.

So we already knew Zak could dreamwalk. But there is a very, very small mystery aspect to the chapter. And I'm not talking about the Saturdays having no idea why they all had the same dream. You may have noticed that at the end of Chapter 13, Zak never said (or thought) anything about going into the families' dreams. Now since this is no epic mystery, I'm just going to tell you. Zak actually didn't know that he was in the Saturdays' dreams. You notice that the Zak in the dream didn't do much? No real sense of urgency that the real Zak might've had since he was trapped in Weird World and Argost may or may not know that he's a wolf? That's because the Zak that the family saw was actually more like a figure of his subconscious. So think of it as a S.O.S. dream. And all those images that they saw mean something too but if you haven't already figured it out I won't tell you, though you'll find out in this chapter anyway.

So I just wanted to clear that up.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 15: Freedom At Last

Zak yawned. _'That was such a weird dream. Almost like I… Uh oh.' _He realized that he'd walked in the Saturdays' dreams without meaning too. He wondered how he was going to explain that if they asked him.

'_Hey guys, guess what! Ok, it's a funny story, really. My subconscious may or may not have sent you guys a S.O.S. dream. Did you all have the same dream last night?' _Zak thought sarcastically _'Oh yeah, that'd go over real well…'_

Zak sighed. He wondered how he was going to escape. He could hear his stomach complaining about not getting either dinner the night before or breakfast this morning.

It was a little cold, but Zak didn't shiver. Partially because he could handle cold much better than a normal human even when he was in his human form because of him being a wolf as well as a human.

He hadn't seen Argost since the night before, but the question was still nagging at him; Did Argost know he was a hybrid? Hopefully the madman had simply been trying to shake him up, however if that had been his intention, he'd certainly achieved it. Zak was shaken up, and scared. Weird World may have looked cool on television, but it was like something straight out of a horror movie in real life.

And one night trapped inside the horror movie had taken its toll on Zak. During the night he'd heard a variety of noises, and none had sounded friendly. Zak knew that it'd been the most sleepless and scariest night that – no, scratch that, this definitely ranked second to the night he'd lost his parents. But still, a sleepless and scary night, nonetheless. Since there was no clock in his cell he guessed that he'd slept maybe one to two hours between all the times he'd woken up and fallen back to sleep, and that was only because he hadn't gotten his usual amount of sleep the night before. And did I mention all the noises during the night?

Zak may be stronger than the average eleven year, but he's still a kid. And even he knows that no matter how many bad guys he fought, he'd still get scared sometimes. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he knew it.

* * *

It was about another hour of boredom before Zak heard angry footsteps on the other side of the dungeon wall. A normal human wouldn't have been able to hear but Zak was definitely not normal. He pressed his ear to the wall so he could hear better.

"I knew they would try a pitiful rescue attempt, but I never expected them to be able to get inside my mansion! Munya! How could you let this happen?" Argost raged and blamed his loyal servant. **(AN: He actually blamed Munya in The Atlas Pin too.)**

'_Wait… Rescue attempt? Who'd rescue me?... Unless… But why would they want to rescue me after everything I did?' _Zak wondered, but he was dragged out of his thoughts when Argost continued talking.

"I'll take care of the Saturdays. Munya, take care of our little guest will you?"

That confirmed Zak's theory. He didn't know what Argost meant by 'take care of'. But Zak doubted it was anything good. Not by a long shot.

Zak heard Argost and Munya walk away.

He gulped, he had to think of a plan, and fast.

Zak grabbed a bar that was on the ceiling and swung himself backward so that his feet were planted on the other wall. Now if anyone looked into the dungeon they wouldn't be able to see him.

Zak heard Munya approaching his cell and the hybrid didn't even dare to breathe.

Munya let out a surprised growl-like sound when he couldn't see Zak and put the key in the lock to inspect the cell, which, to him, appeared to be childless.

This was exactly what Zak wanted. Munya entered the dungeon and looked around, making sure that the dungeon was empty. Unfortunately for Munya, the cell wasn't as empty as it appeared.

Zak pounced from above on unsuspecting Munya.

Zak hung on as Munya thrashed around. Then when Munya's thrashing had gotten him farther away from the door Zak sprinted out into the hall and noticed that the key was still in the lock so he locked Munya in the dungeon before Munya even realized what had happened.

The wolf hybrid cautiously exited the dungeon, being vigilant to look for traps because he knew they would be there.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Saturday family had managed to stumble on the trap control room.

Argost, who had been waiting, engaged the family in a battle

The TV host punched Doc, but then was hit by a fireball from Drew's fire sword. The battle continued like that until something caught Fiskerton's eye.

The gorilla cat saw Zak wandering around on one of the many screens that showed various parts of the mansion.

"_Look!"_ Fiskerton pointed at the screen.

"We're a little busy right now Fiskerton!" Drew shouted, dodging a kick.

Fiskerton got even more excited when he noticed Munya was locked in the dungeon.

"_Hey look! Munya is in the dungeon!"_

This got everyone's attention and Argost quickly left to free his servant while the family was busy noticing that Zak was on one of the screens too.

"He must've tricked Munya!" Doyle guessed.

Doc noticed that all the trap controls were in the room and started to disable them.

Unfortunately, he couldn't disable them all and Zak was headed right towards a door that would electrocute him badly.

"_Turn it off!" _Fiskerton yelled hysterically.

"I'm trying but it's locked!" Doc answered, still trying his best to disable the trap before Zak reached it.

But the family could do nothing but watch as Zak got closer to major electrocution.

* * *

Luckily, Zak hadn't encountered any traps so far, but he was still on the lookout.

He soon came to a door that looked promising and reached out to twist the doorknob, but something stopped him. Instinct, maybe? Or maybe the faint sound of crackling electricity. Probably both.

Zak listened carefully, grateful for wolf senses.

Sure enough, he could hear the massive amount of electricity crackling on the doorknob.

He looked around and found a small piece of metal to throw at the doorknob.

Right before the piece of metal touched the doorknob it was shocked. A lot.

Zak stood there for a moment, gaping at the now steaming, blackened and charred metal piece, stunned at how much electricity could be in one doorknob. And then it occurred to him how close he had come to being a lightning rod himself.

Zak gulped and turned around the corner to continue down the hallway, instead of going through the door.

* * *

"Uh, what just happened here?" Doyle asked.

They were all stunned, and not to mention relieved, when Zak stopped and realized that the door would electrocute him. And then he threw a piece of metal at it and turned the other way.

"How did he know it would hurt him?" Drew asked no one in particular, although if someone did have an answer she'd be glad to hear it.

"I… don't know." Doc replied.

Getting over the shock, Doc finally managed to turn off the electric door, as well as all the other traps in the mansion.

Then they all left to find Zak.

* * *

Zak was still wandering around, hoping to find a way out or the family that had come to save him, when he heard footsteps. Fearing it was Argost or Munya, he smelt the air and was able to catch the scent of the Saturday family coming towards him.

Why they had come to save him, Zak still had no clue. But that didn't mean he wasn't glad to see them.

They came sprinting around the corner and Zak realized that Argost and Munya were chasing them.

Zak opened his mouth to say something but was almost slammed into by Fiskerton as the gorilla cat grabbed the eleven year old.

Then, suddenly, they all were back in the family's giant airship.

Zak was wide-eyed, still being held by Fiskerton and partially questioning his own sanity.

Fiskerton dropped Zak and chuckled at his expression.

"That transporter worked perfectly!" Doc said proudly.

Doc had built a prototype transportation device a while ago, but never finished it. When his family had to go to Weird World he got the idea to finish it and it proved to be very useful in their escape.

"Are you ok, Zak?" Drew asked.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine." Zak stood up and his surprised expression was replaced with confusion. "But, I don't get it. Why'd you guys save me?"

"What? You thought we were just going to leave you there?" Doyle asked.

"Well, I don't know. I mean, I did do all that stuff to you guys."

"Well, yeah, you did. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't help you if you needed it." Drew said.

Zak looked down at his shoes guiltily.

"You know what was weird though?" Doyle said, changing the subject. "Last night we all had this really weird dream. And now that I think of it, the sequence of halls and rooms in Weird World that we saw over and over again led to the control room."

"You're right, it was the exact same sequence, wasn't it." Drew said, confused.

"That's definitely weird…" Zak said nonchalantly like he knew absolutely nothing about it. Inside he was scolding his subconscious for sending like a S.O.S. dream.

By now, it was night and Zak was tired.

"Um, so, I'm tired, so I guess I'm gonna go to bed now. Night." Zak started to head towards his temporary room, grabbing a snack on his way out.

"Hey, wait, how'd you know that door in Weird World would electrocute you?" Doc asked.

But Zak pretended not to hear and kept walking away.

"I'm worried about him. He didn't seem as… Alive as he used to be." Drew said, concerned about Zak.

"I know, but he did just spend the night in Weird World." Doc pointed out, though he was worried a little too.

"True..."

* * *

Zak lay in his bed and was thinking. Did Argost know that he was a wolf hybrid?

'_Oh, why is life so complicated!' _He thought before drifting off to sleep.

At least he'd get a good night's rest this night. And a good breakfast in the morning.

* * *

White Wolf: So there it is! And rather long to! Yay!

Sorry for the long wait everyone, but I ask that you be patient because we had to put one of our cats to sleep about a week ago. This cat had been around almost my entire life, and definitely as far as I can remember so it's really hard.

Please review.

~White Wolf Out~


	16. It Only Takes A Small Paper Ball

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**Reviewer Question: **Ok so a reviewer asked if the Saturdays would ever find out about Zak being a wolf and looking back I've held that secret back for 16 chapters now. So I want to say that they **will** find out! I promise! I have it already planned out! Only a couple more chapters!

Also Maker, thanks for the ideas, but I actually have stuff planned out already. But I really appreciate the support! ^_^

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 16: It Only Takes A Small Paper Ball…

Zak got up the next morning and ate his breakfast in silence. He still wasn't feeling as lively as he usually did. He didn't know why though.

The family that'd rescued him from Weird World tried to cheer him up, but it didn't work.

Zak exiled himself to the couch, watching whatever uninteresting TV shows were on until the afternoon when he decided to hang out in his room.

* * *

Doc continued to study the Kur Stone, looking for clues that they had perhaps missed. It was just as much of an enigma as, well. Zak.

The kid had been different ever since his overnight stay at Weird World. Of course, that wasn't much of a surprise. That mansion held such horrors that no one, especially a kid, should ever see.

Although Zak insisted that he was ok and nothing really bad happened, the family still worried.

It was odd. The morning of Zak's capture the family had just wanted him gone, but now, they were truly concerned. He hadn't set up any traps since he returned, and he just wasn't as energetic and alive as he used to be. He wasn't really doing anything anymore, just sitting on the couch staring blankly at the television. The Saturdays hoped that he would go back to normal soon. They even wouldn't mind if he started setting up traps again, as long as he was happy.

The scientist sighed. He couldn't find anything else useful.

Groaning in frustration, he crumpled up a paper he'd been jotting down a couple theories on into a ball and threw it over his shoulder and through the open doorway into the hall.

He turned back to the computer screen, studying what little information they had on the Kur Stone, still hoping to stumble across something they'd missed.

Suddenly something landed next to him. It was the paper ball that he'd tossed behind him only moments ago. **(AN: Do some of you see where this is going? ^_^)**

"How did this get back in here?" Doc asked out loud.

No response came, not that he'd been expecting one, though.

Shrugging, he threw the paper ball back through the door and into the hallway.

A moment later, it was back again.

Confused, Doc stood up and walked into the hallway, trying to see if there was something there throwing the paper ball back at him.

The hall was empty.

This time Doc threw the paper ball farther down the hall and returned to the Kur Stone. Though he wasn't even looking at the artifact anymore, he was interested to see if the paper ball would end up back in the room again.

Just as he had expected, the paper ball was back and sitting on the desk in seconds.

He threw it again and waited, but it didn't come back. For some reason Doc found himself a little disappointed. Maybe he'd been enjoying himself? He walked out and picked up the paper ball. He still had absolutely no idea what had kept throwing it back but he let it go when Fiskerton came running down the hall and insisted on playing a game.

* * *

Zak had been on the way to his room when suddenly a paper ball flew next to him.

The wolf hybrid was powerless against the strong urge to chase it. He caught it and threw it back into the room that it'd come from.

Moments later it was back. As he did before, he returned it to the person who'd thrown it, and with a quick sniff of the air he realized that it was Doc.

This time he heard Doc get up and start towards the door. Zak quickly ducked around the corner and out of view.

When he heard Doc go back into the room and throw the paper ball again he came out off his hiding place and threw it back.

It was then that Zak realized he was smiling and having fun. What was he thinking by doing nothing all morning? Life was staring him in the face! He was a kid; He needed to have fun! Not do nothing all day! Zak remembered Fiskerton begging him to go to Drew's giant garden dome thing to play a game with the rest of the family, but he'd refused.

Zak ran down the hall, Doc just missing him. The hybrid wanted to have fun, and he knew how.

* * *

Fiskerton had succeeded in rounding up his entire family to play a game with him. Though he was sad that he couldn't convince Zak, he wasn't going to let that stop him from having fun.

Fiskerton had decided that he wanted to play the game where you have the band around your arm and you tried to get everyone else's while not losing your own.

Fiskerton was ecstatic when he ended up with everyone's bands and still in possession of his own.

He was cheering victoriously when something seemingly came out of nowhere and snatched everyone one of the bands from his hand, including his own which he'd ripped off his arm when he thought he'd won.

Meanwhile the rest of the family came upon a surprising scene.

Zak was doing some sort of victory dance with all the arm bands in his hands and Fiskerton grumbling about how close he'd been to winning.

Needless to say, everyone was surprised to see Zak, who'd been absolutely miserable earlier, smiling and happy.

"Let's play that again!" Zak said excitedly.

"Uh, ok." The family was still recovering from shock.

* * *

Zak had a lot of fun playing the game, which he was incredibly good at. He seemed to always find you and you never heard him coming until it was too late. **(AN: Gee, I wonder why… ;) )**

Now it was dinnertime, and after a long day of playing, they were all hungry. It was also confession time for Zak.

He apologized for playing so many tricks on them and confessed to flooding a room, setting off a few tiny explosions, and other things. But some explosions and a room ending up on fire really had been accidents.

He also dug up all the stuff he'd buried in the backyard.

"A dictionary?" Doc had asked with one eyebrow raised in a questioning manner.

Zak shrugged. "Hey, I found it, I buried it." **(AN: A tiny bit of a Wadi quote from Eterno there.)**

For some reason Doyle seemed a little too happy about discovering the puzzle pieces… Upon further investigation they found out it was because Doyle had been missing the last piece of a kitten puzzle that no one had known he'd even started.

Once again, all was normal for the Saturday family and Zak… Or at least as normal as any of their lives could be…

* * *

White Wolf: Don't worry, this is **not** the end of the story. Just a time skip.

Zak: Phew. *Whips Away Imaginary Sweat*

Doyle: Get back here! *Chases After White Wolf*

White Wolf: No way! *Runs From Doyle*

Zak: Whatcha doing? *Watches From The Couch As Doyle Chases White Wolf Around The Living Room*

White Wolf: *Mischievous* I took the last piece of the kitten puzzle….

*A Couple Hours Later*

*White Wolf Walks In With A New Bone*

Zak: He bribed you, huh?

White Wolf: Yep. And you what to know the best part? I was about to give it to him anyway! *Happily Chews Bone*

Hey guys, I have a question for all of you! How does a story get a third genre? Like this one is Family/Action/Adventure. But how did it get that way because I can only put in two genres not three?

Anyway, if anyone could answer that I'd appreciate it. J

Please Review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	17. Zak, Have You Met Zak?

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**Reviewer Questions: **First of all I'd like to thank everyone who answered my questions and of course anyone who reviewed or even read this! ^_^

Ms. Idea Maker, I don't think you have to wait before posting new chapters, I have posted a couple in a very short time span before and it never told me I had to wait.

Luke 93, thanks, and I've never heard of them, why do you ask?

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 17: Zak, Have You Met Zak?

During the couple weeks after Zak's rescue from Weird World, he and the Saturdays had bonded. Now that the eleven year old wasn't playing anymore tricks, the family found that they really enjoyed his company. Sure, he was perhaps a little too energetic, and things sometimes still explode, but at least they were all accidental.

They had also noticed some weird behaviors. Like sometimes if he's confused Zak cocks his head, he finds you wherever you try to hide and Fiskerton _has_ tried some crazy spots during hide and seek, and if by chance you make him angry sometimes he seems to growl; and not like any human growl. He also has a weird knack for finding something lost, like one of the mobile video phones.

Drew also wondered why his weapon of choice, which he called The Claw, had The Hand of Tsul 'Kalu on the end. Not that there was anything wrong with that considering that the artifact really helped focus his powers, but where he had gotten it Zak wasn't saying. In truth, Zak's parents had met Tsul 'Kalu once when Zak was little and he'd given them the Hand of Tsul 'Kalu to give it to Zak when he got older to help with his powers.

Perhaps one day he'd tell the Saturdays about his wolf parents, who were also hybrids, but after the accident that took them away from Zak they could no longer switch forms. And now that their DreamWalker powers have run out, there was absolutely no way Zak would ever see them again. Zak guessed that he'd tortured the family that'd taken him in with tricks and pranks because subconsciously he was jealous that they were a happy family and he was all alone, or at least that's what it had felt like to him before the Saturdays had rescued him from Weird World even after all he'd done to them. Now, however, he wasn't so sure anymore. Was he really all alone in the physical world? Or was he starting to become part of another family? He was definitely having fun. Part of him would like to be part of a family again, but another part would think he was just forgetting about his wolf parents and replacing them as if he'd never even loved them. He didn't know, and he didn't want to think about it.

In the span of a couple weeks Zak had met a lot of new people. The Secret Scientists, including the ones he'd heard talking to Doc and Drew that one night, for example. Dr. Arthur Beeman had quickly nicknamed him because of his unique hair, much to Zak's annoyance. He'd had a lot of fun playing with one of Dr. Miranda Grey's portal ray things before it had been taken away from him by the angry scientist. He'd been scolded, but it'd been worth it. He'd had a lot of fun sticking an arm through one portal and watching his hand come out of the other one. He'd made some friends too, King Ulraj of Kumari Kandam and Wadi, of the Hassi. And for some reason that Zak didn't understand Wadi had said that he was cute when she'd left and had an odd habit of taking his belt. Why she did that he didn't think he'd ever know. It could also be argued that he'd also made an enemy, Francis, who Zak knew something was off with because his scent was too identical to his supposed father, Epsilon. Sure if they were father and son their scents would have similarities, but they were too similar. Zak wasn't quite sure, but he guessed they were clones.

Anyway, today they were going to look at an artifact, the Smoke Mirror of Tezcatlipoca. Though, it was only Zak, Doc, Drew, Fiskerton, Komodo and Zon that day. Doyle was on some training vacation he'd been looking forward to.

Zak was so-so excited about it, on the one hand, they were going on an adventure. On the other hand, they were only looking at an artifact not a Cryptid or anything very exciting in Zak's book.

"Ah, look at this temple." Drew said, admiring the temple-like structure. "You can feel the dark magic just radiating in the air and off the walls." She closed her eyes and concentrated.

Doc, naturally, was a bit more skeptical. Though he kept his scientific mouth shut and let his wife enjoy the moment.

"So this is the Smoke Mirror." Zak said, though it was more of a statement.

"Mmmhmm." Drew said, her eyes still shut. "Careful, that mirror is full of dark magic. I wouldn't advise touching it."

Sadly, she said that a little too late. Zak had already picked the mirror up.

Blinding light suddenly surrounded them all and Zak dropped the mirror. That was the last thing they remembered before everything went blank.

* * *

Zak blinked open his eyes.

Drew was looking at him and smiling. This confused Zak.

"Um, why are you looking at me like that…? It's kinda freaking me out..."

"Oh, I'm just happy you're all ok." She gestured to the rest of the family who were all standing in the room too, except for Doc, who was lying down. Though several of them had bandages on.

"Are you guys all ok?" Zak asked, concerned.

They all said yes in their different ways. Grunting, cawing etcetera…

Except for… "Bad copy!"

"Um, oooook." Zak replied, a little weirded out.

"Oh don't worry about him, sweetie. He's just a little shook up. He'll be fine." Drew said, still smiling a smile way too sweet for comfort.

'_Sweetie? Since when does she call me sweetie?' _Zak thought. Something really weird was going on, and Zak was going to find out what it was.

* * *

A couple minutes later Zak and Drew were in the kitchen-like area.

"Hot chocolate?" She asked, but didn't wait for an answer before handing him a cup and sipping her own. "Mmmmm…."

"Since when do you like hot chocolate so much?" Zak asked, still trying to think of what might be wrong with Drew.

"Do I have to have a reason?" She snapped unusually mean-like before suddenly turning way too sweet again. "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I'm just a little on edge."

Zak wasn't sure what to make of this. No, he really wasn't. Drew looked like Drew, but Drew wasn't acting very much like Drew.

Something was going on; Zak knew that much, but he wasn't quite sure what... Until he noticed something very, very odd with her scent.

It was different. _Way_ too different. It was similar to Drew's in a way, but it was definitely not Drew's.

And then there was the obvious sign that something was off. He smelt himself too, like himself, but not himself. Like Drew's scent.

He didn't know what was going on but one thing was for sure. This woman, whoever she was, was not Drew.

He set down his hot chocolate carefully so he wouldn't alarm the imposter.

"Where are the real Saturdays?" Zak asked casually.

The Drew imposter practically choked on her hot chocolate before her expression turned deadly. Sickly sweetness was long gone now, and Zak guessed that he was now seeing the Drew imposter's real personality.

"How did you know?" She practically hissed "I had to be _nice_ to you! I _was_ being nice to you! How'd you know?"

A new voice broke in before Zak could answer.

"Well for one thing, you acted _waaay_ too sweet." The person the new voice had come from stepped in the room. Zak was almost looking at himself, except for his hair, which was reverse colored. And of course this Zak looked rather evil.

Then it suddenly occurred to Zak what was going on. This had all started after he'd touched the Smoke Mirror.

"You came out of the Smoke Mirror didn't you? All of you did…" Zak said, watching as the rest of the Monday family (as Zak had just dubbed them) entered the room and tore their bandages off, revealing differences from the real Saturday family.

"Wow, you're smarter than I thought you'd be… But not by much." Zak Monday (who Zak guessed had lost his parents and had Cryptid powers just like Zak had, but found it too confusing to simply refer to his double as Zak) taunted.

Suddenly really weird things started happening. Walls started melting and the hot chocolate was suddenly frozen to name a few.

"Isn't it cool that matter and anti-matter coming in to contact with each other long enough tears apart the fabric of the dimension? But anyway, I'm not surprised at all you figured out the difference..." Zak Monday paused, letting the implication sink in. "Because of course, you and that family are doubles of us. Weak, pathetic doubles, but still doubles. And of course my powers are better than yours. Yours are stupid and pathetic. Mine are amusing. I like watching things hurt." Zak Monday smiled sadistically. Zak cringed at his double's viciousness.

The Monday family looked confused at the first part but didn't comment. Zak knew that his doppelganger was referring to the fact that they both were human-wolf hybrids and that the Mondays had no idea just like the Saturdays. He also guessed that his doppelganger's Cryptid powers hurt Cryptids instead of what Zak's did.

And as if the day couldn't get any stranger, Komodo Monday started talking... Like actual talking, not Komodo's usual hissing sounds. "None of us care about your commentary, Zak," Zak Monday scowled at this. "We just need to send them back to our world."

"Fine, fine, whatever." Zak Monday muttered under his breath clearly not happy about his taunting speech being cut short.

Zak didn't think 'our world' would be somewhere he'd enjoy. He needed to find the actual Saturdays.

Zak sprinted out of the room and about halfway down the first hallway he switched to wolf form in mid stride, not even slowing down a bit when he transformed. In fact, now that he had four legs, he was speeding up. He knew the Mondays were chasing him and he also knew that Zak Monday wouldn't be afraid to chase him down as a wolf either, which is why he decided to change first and get a head start.

Zak was running fast through the airship, evading Zak Monday, who Zak could tell was way in front of the other Mondays and from the noises of claw scratches on the metal floor, Zak could tell they were farther away. It also told him that his double was pursuing him in wolf form.

The eleven year old saw his window of opportunity… Literally. He actually saw a window. Ironically he was now about to jump out of the same window he'd snuck in when the Saturdays had left the town by the forest he'd used to live in. Luckily he knew that the airship was parked and he wasn't that far off the ground so he wouldn't get hurt.

He quickly switched to human form to open the window, deciding it was better to risk Zak Monday catching up than smashing through the glass and getting cuts all over. But he knew Zak Monday was getting closer for the walls started melting again.

After he opened the window he turned back to wolf form just in time to see a white wolf with a black star rounding the corner with an angry look on its face. It was Zak Monday in wolf form. Hybrids fur colors, and sometimes eye color, typically depended on what their hair color is when they were in human form. For example, Zak's mom in human form had white hair and icy blue eyes, just like her wolf form. His dad had black hair and dark brown eyes, the same as his wolf form. The only difference with Zak was that in wolf form his eyes were the color of his Cryptid powers. Zak Monday's eyes in wolf form were green, which Zak guessed was what the color of his evil, torturing Cryptid powers.

"Hey!" Zak Monday growled, now in human form, as Zak jumped out of the airship window.

Zak landed on four feet and took a millisecond to wonder if he had a little tiger in his blood before racing back in the direction of the temple he and the Saturdays had found the Smoke Mirror in.

It was the last place he'd seen the real Saturdays. And he was going to find them. Then he was going to send the Mondays back where they came from.

* * *

White Wolf: Yay! Chapter! ^_^ *White Wolf Victoriously Howls At Moon*

Zak: Yay! *Jumps For Joy*

White Wolf: I haven't victoriously howled at the moon in a long time….

Zak: Yeah I know….

White Wolf: I'll have to remember to do that more often. It's fun!

White Wolf: Have you guys noticed that I've been updating frequently! ^_^ *Happy*

Everyone Except White Wolf: Yeah, it's awesome!

Everyone: Yay!

I have been updating frequently haven't I? Yay! ^_^

And I've also added a segment at the beginning of chapters about things some reviews say like maybe a question. Though I will still reply to all reviews separately through e-mail anyway.

Also you probably noticed but this is like the episode 'Black Monday' when the Mondays were actually introduced, but don't worry! It's not going to be exactly the same as you've read in this chapter!

We had snow! ^_^ Yay snow!

Please review! ^_^

~White Wolf Out~


	18. Return To The Temple

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts! ^_^ I can't believe how many I've gotten!

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me.

Please note that this story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has Cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**Reviewer Questions: **Ok so Darth Wolf pointed something out, it is true that wolves howl to communicate but not just because like Zak does sometimes. I did know this but I chose to ignore that fact. Darth Wolf, thanks for pointing that out anyway. And remember guys, I'm no expert on Wolves, so chances are there are mistakes.

Luke 206, sorry but I want to concentrate on this story.

* * *

Howl Of The Wolf

Chapter 18: Return To The Temple

Zak ran, and in a short time he was back at the Smoke Mirror temple thanks to the fact that the airship hadn't been that far away and of course four legs are typically faster than two.

When he got closer he turned back into a human because he didn't know what he'd find and if the Saturdays would see him in wolf form or not. If they saw him in wolf form here that would definitely raise suspicion.

Zak also hadn't howled in a while. He didn't want the Saturdays to hear him. He knew that normally wolves only howl to communicate, tell each other where they are and other things like that but Zak on the other hand, just howls for fun. After all, since when is Zak normal?

Zak, in human form, approached the temple where the smoke mirror had first been found, looking around as he walked forward.

"Zak!" "Zak!"

Suddenly two Drews appeared. One was on the left of Zak and the other on the right.

Zak thought for a moment about who was who before mentally smacking his forehead and thinking _'Duh!'_.

He discreetly sniffed the air.

'_Ah. Real Drew on the right and not-Drew on the left.' _He thought before pointing the Claw at Drew Monday.

"What?" Drew Monday was surprised when Zak figured out, once again, who was the real Drew and who wasn't.

Drew Saturday was also surprised but was far more concentrated on smacking her doppelganger in the face at the moment and made a mental note to ask Zak about it later.

Suddenly the rest of the Saturday family and the rest of the Monday family arrived.

There was silence for a moment before chaos erupted. People and creatures that looked incredible alike started fighting each other. It looked like some sort of cloning experiment gone wrong.

Zak, after just barely dodging a punch from someone, he couldn't tell who it had been and didn't have time to check, came face to face with Zak Monday.

"We can do better than these guys at fighting." He smirked evilly. "After all, they don't have sharp teeth and claws."

He must've seen the flash of horror that passed on Zak's face because he then added. "Oh? What's this? You haven't told them? This is gonna be fun then, isn't it?"

Zak suddenly thought of a plan so that hopefully his secret would remain intact because obviously Zak Monday didn't care if he exposed both of them. If he could lure Zak Monday far enough away before either of them transformed, then no one would see.

Zak took off in the direction of some trees and could hear, no, he could practically _feel _Zak Monday sprinting after him.

He had just managed to make it to some trees before he was suddenly slammed to the ground and looking into a set of animalistic glowing green eyes belonging to a now white wolf.

Zak kicked the wolf's snout and Zak M reared back, growling. Zak got to his feet and a second later, a black wolf stood in his place.

The two Zaks bit and clawed at each other fiercely. Zak M bit Zak's arm and Zak retaliated with a bite to the doppelganger's ear. Zak M yanked his injured ear from Zak's jaws and snapped at the black wolf's face. Fortunately, Zak jumped back and avoided getting teeth to his face. Zak M growled aggressively but Zak refused to back down. He snarled and bared his fangs at the evil doppelganger. Zak M however, was not frightened at all.

Zak's ears picked up shouting close by and he knew that the others were fighting too.

Zak launched himself forward and dug his teeth into Zak M's side. The white wolf let out a short bark of pain before biting into Zak's side as retaliation. Zak let go of Zak M and the doppelganger sunk his fangs into the black wolf's shoulder. Zak yelped in pain and managed to fling the wolf off of himself.

The two clashed again. A blur of teeth, claws, fur and now, blood.

The two kept going until loud shouts were heard in the direction of the Saturdays and the Mondays. It sounded like the Mondays were losing. Zak M barked under his breath and Zak suspected swearing.

Zak M wolf-smirked at Zak and spun around to dart back towards where the Saturdays and the Mondays were. Zak realized that he was going to blow his secret. He tore after the wolf at full speed.

Zak jumped into the air and landed on Zak M's back. The white wolf collapsed under the force and the two of them rolled on the ground.

The two quickly picked themselves up off the ground and Zak and Zak M were at a stand off once again.

"_Why don't you just give up?" _Zak M growled.

"_Why don't you!" _Zak growled back. _"The Saturdays are winning! You might as well just give up and go quietly."_

"_Never!" _Zak M snarled.

The two prepared to spring at each other again but they never got the chance. The two froze when they heard shouting.

"Zak! Where'd you two go! The rest of the Mondays are tied up! Zak Monday is the only one left!" The Saturdays' voices were coming closer.

To Zak's relief, Zak M changed back into human form. He did the same and the two took a couple swings at each other with their respective Claws before the Saturdays showed up. They quickly captured Zak M and led him to where the others were tied up.

Why Zak Monday changed back, Zak wasn't sure. But he figured the evil doppelganger had something up his sleeve. Perhaps for another day?

The Mondays were sent back to their own world, not without spewing around insults, but it was done. Zak M however, had just smirked the whole time. It must have been amusing to him to watch Zak try to figure out why he changed back.

* * *

~ In The Airship ~

Back in the airship with the actual Saturdays this time, Zak observed the damage. The Saturdays were dirty and tired but didn't have any serious injuries. Zak looked down at himself. His clothes were torn in several places where Zak M had bitten him and some spots were stained red. Luckily, his injuries were not bad and would heal shortly.

Drew noticed him and left the room to get something. She came back a minute later with something in her arms.

"Here." She handed him the item "Your clothes have tears in them, you can change into this."

"Oh." Zak said in surprise "Ok." He looked at what was in his hands and saw a smaller version of the Saturday uniform.

As he was walking out of the room Drew's voice stopped him.

"How did you know who was who?" This caught the rest of the family's attention and they were all looking at him in anticipation.

"Uh." Zak stumbled for a response. "I guess I just know you guys better than you think I do." He said mysteriously and with that Zak left the room.

* * *

The airship was on a course for Saturday HQ and Zak had gone somewhere for a snack. The Saturdays thought that their uniform suited him nicely and Fiskerton even gave him a thumbs up sign when he came out wearing it.

Drew, meanwhile, didn't want Zak's dirty old clothes lying around and making a mess so she decided she would do something with them.

"That's odd…" She said aloud as something about Zak's shirt caught her eye. It was torn, but it looked almost as if something had bitten it… Something canine…

* * *

White Wolf: Hi everybody! Happy Holidays! ^_^

Everyone: Happy Holidays!

* * *

I am so, so, so, so sorry about long this took to get out….. T_T I have horrible time management skills…..

Anyway, the big wolf reveal is soon….. Happy Holidays everyone! ^_^

Please review!

~White Wolf Out~


	19. Cherufe Trouble And Power Practice

Thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites and alerts everyone! ^_^ Please read the Author's Notes, it might be important. So, please make sure there's nothing important in the notes.

Disclaimer: The Secret Saturdays does not belong to me. I also do not own Godzilla, who is mentioned in this chapter.

This story is **Major AU**.

Summary: The Saturdays are sent to a town to investigate some black wolf sightings. They meet Zak, a kid who roams the forest next to the town. But Zak is the black wolf and also has cryptid powers; can the young hybrid keep his secrets safe? Especially after Argost seems to know that he's hiding something. And on top of all that the Saturdays and the Secret Scientists are starting to get a little suspicious.

**Reviewer Questions: **supersora557 asked if Zak and Wadi were going to get together in this. Sorry, but romance is not what I'm going for in this so there really isn't going to be any. But there might still be hints here and there.

anon asked why Zak M wasn't a cat. Zak S and Zak M are like opposites, opposite personalities, opposite hair colors, opposite powers, but they are both still human. Because they are both still human it makes sense that they both would be wolves.

no 1 special, your review just really warmed my heart. ^_^ Thank you. J

cryptidkitty7077, I get sidetracked like that too! ^_^

Also, I would like to thank anyone who proposed ideas for the story. I appreciate it, but in the end I thought of something I wanted to do.

* * *

One last thing and it is semi important so please take a moment to **read this**. I went through my old chapters and cleaned them up a bit. It is nothing that will effect the story now so you don't have to go back and read them all again. Unless of course, you want too. But also, some things I had planned to include I completely forgot about or they completely lost their purpose. For example, the scratch Zak had on his hand in Chapter 4? It was supposed to do something but it never ended up doing anything except possibly confuse people into thinking it was important. But, as I said, none of these changes will affect the story now.

Also I told a lot of you that this chapter would be pretty groundbreaking and solve a few things. I'm sorry, I was going to make it one huge chapter but after 5,000 words and 10 pages I split it. I also wanted more time to work on getting the right feeling into the next chapter if that makes sense. I also wanted to assure everyone that this story is not abandoned by updating.

* * *

Chapter 19: Cherufe Trouble And Power Practice

Aside from a few calls about Cryptids, which were easy to deal with using Zak's powers, the next couple weeks were fairly quiet in the Saturday house.

Zak was having a wondrous time exploring the surrounding woods and at night he would go out and howl for fun. He was also adjusting nicely to living in an actual house instead of in the wild like he had for most of his life.

He was still wearing the Saturday uniform and one woman had told Drew that her 'son' had very interesting hair. Zak wondered if perhaps she'd been talking about Fiskerton instead of him. **(1)**

Drew, Zak noticed, seemed to be watching him extra carefully. Of course, they always kept an eye on him because he had a tendency to play with the off-limits experimental weapons, but Drew almost seemed to think he was up to something.

Why, Zak thought as he absentmindedly pressed buttons on a machine he wasn't supposed to be near, he had no idea. But even so, he had to be careful how wolf-like he acted.

* * *

Drew scanned the search results again, but came up with nothing more than when she did so only a moment ago. Ever since the incident with the Smoke Mirror, Drew had been having doubts about whether Zak was hiding something. Her suspicions even went as far as to question whether or not he was even completely human. It sounded nuts, she knew that. Zak looked perfectly human, but sometimes his behavior was odd in a way that made her wonder if her suspicion wasn't as crazy as it sounded. And then there was his old shirt. Drew knew that there had not been any bite marks on it before he and his doppelganger had disappeared and fought. She realized it was possible that the doppelganger Zak had dubbed Zak Monday had bitten Zak, but the bite marks had not been human, instead it had been some kind of canine. But then there was the fact that if Zak had been bitten by a canine he should have some kind of wound to show for it. He had some small injuries but nothing serious like what one would have expected.

The mystery of Zak, the kid they found seemingly abandoned in a forest, only deepened.

One that subject, they had searched up and down for any sort of documentation for him but they weren't able to find a single thing. No birth certificate, no medical records, no school records, nothing at all to indicate that Zak even exists. They asked him if he knew his last name but Zak had just shrugged and said he wasn't sure if he even had one. They also wondered how he ended up living alone in the forest in the first place but Zak insisted that he was not abandoned and they didn't want to press the issue because it seemed to be a sensitive one.

They also had bigger things to worry about at the moment, what with Argost having at least two keys to Kur's Tomb. The Alkali Lake Monster's horn had been stolen from them when Drew had discovered her long lost brother and the Royal Medallion from Kumari Kandam when Argost had taken over the city. And then add the fact that they never actually found the black wolf back in the forest. Although the townspeople reported that they haven't heard any howling or seen signs of the wolf at all since they left. It was like it had just disappeared. The whole situation with that wolf had been odd, in Drew's opinion. Wolves weren't even supposed to be around that area.

Speaking of wolves, they had been hearing howling lately and where they lived there were no wolves around just like with the forest. Why was one so mysteriously here now?

Drew sighed. She still couldn't find anything about what Zak could be and what he could be hiding.

* * *

Today the family, and the wolf in disguise, were called by Dr. Cheechoo to Mount Osorno in South America. **(2)**

Doc and Drew were investigating the strange animalistic noise that Dr. Cheechoo's sensor was picking up and Zak, meanwhile, hoped to go snowboarding on the snowy mountain but was stuck waiting patiently.

Zak sighed while playing with the snow with his shoe. He never liked waiting, but sometimes it was, sadly, necessary. At least it gave him time to reflect.

Lately he'd been feeling different, like… He wasn't sure exactly, but something was different. He liked living with the Saturdays more than he thought he would. It was odd for Zak, to not only have other people around, but those other people looked after him like… Like parents… Zak hadn't really had anything remotely like parents in a long time. Ever since his parents had died Zak had stayed away from, well, anyone, really. Sure he ventured to the town sometimes and snuck into the library but he'd been living on his own for years now and wasn't used to people trying to take care of him and keep him safe. Zak wasn't sure how that made him feel. On one hand, Zak didn't want to rely on anyone else. He could take care of himself just fine. He has been for several years. Yet, on the other hand, Zak didn't want to be completely alone and a part of him liked that he didn't have to be the one thinking about survival all the time.

Zak sighed once more. He was really confused.

But it didn't look like he'd get more time to ponder it because at that moment with a boom the volcano top exploded and started spewing lava. Now that was not something one saw everyday. It was, however, the figure that emerged a moment later at the top that caught Zak's attention.

"Uh, what is that?" Zak pointed at the top of the erupting volcano.

However the adults had already taken off to rescue some stranded skiers and contain the lava as best they could. Zak looked around and found a pair of binoculars to get a better look and whatever he was expecting, it wasn't a giant green lizard.

Doc came running back toward the camp and seeing that Zak had yet to move to safety he shouted at the eleven year old to do so as he was passing by.

"Yeah I know, I was getting to that but-" Zak tried to explain what he saw but Doc was in too much of a hurry to listen and was gone before Zak could finished his sentence.

"Never mind." Zak grumbled. "Just thought you might want to know about the lizard guy but ok, that's fine."

'_I have to get a closer look.' _Thought Zak, and, taking the binoculars with him, he ventured closer.

In retrospect, getting closer to the erupting volcano and the lava that was rapidly getting closer was not the best idea he'd ever had.

Zak tried to get closer where there wasn't any lava, he really did, but suddenly it was all around him and there was no escape.

'_That looks… Really hot…' _Thought Zak as he look around for some way to escape his rather serious predicament.

To Zak's relief, he saw Doyle flying with the help of his jetpack close by.

Doyle's eyes widened and he seemed surprised when he saw that Zak was in the middle of a small, and rapidly diminishing, circle that was surrounded by lava. Doyle really should have expected this by now. He quickly turned in Zak's direction and picked up the eleven year old troublemaker just in time to transport him out of danger.

Zak felt very relieved and he was glad that he had not been killed by the not-so-slow-surprisingly-fast-moving lava. If he was going to die, he would prefer it be much more heroic than death by lava because of curiosity.

Doyle was taking him somewhere, and Zak hoped there wasn't any lava where they were going, he'd had enough of it for the day. He looked towards the ground and it looked to him like the immediate danger was over. The stranded skiers had been rescued and the lava had been redirected and was no longer headed toward the town.

They landed on the snowy ground and almost immediately the rest of the Saturdays were running up to them. Zak wondered if they had seen him nearly get fried… He hoped not.

'_Oh… They look angry…' _Hopes dashed, Zak realized that the news he had nearly been fried had obviously reached them.

"What were you thinking!?" Doc yelled.

"I don't think he was!" Drew yelled.

"I was thinking!" Zak insisted. " I was _thinking _that there was some lizard thing on top of the volcano and maybe someone should check it out!"

"Giant lizard thing?" Doc questioned skeptically.

"Yeah! It was just standing at the top of the volcano. I tried to tell you guys but you left so quickly." Zak explained.

"That is not the point right now! We can talk about this lizard thing later." Drew said before sighing. "Zak, you nearly got yourself killed. You realize that, right?"

Zak was quiet now. Yes, he did realize that. He just didn't want to think about it. He acted like it was no big deal, but the truth was that it scared him how close he had just come to dying.

They seemed to take his silence as a meaning that he got the point and no further scolding was necessary so Drew switched from "angry he nearly got himself killed" to "happy he was ok".

Zak, still deep in his depressing thought-fest, was completely caught off guard when Drew suddenly hugged him and said "Just be careful, sweetie."

Zak was in shock. It had been a long time since he'd been hugged like this by… Well, anyone, really.

"Yeah, okay -" Zak abruptly stopped talking when he realized that he'd been about to call Drew Saturday "Mom".

Drew, completely oblivious to Zak's near mistake, released him from her embrace.

"Now let's go see if we can figure out what those weird noises were."

Doc and Drew started walking away, conversing about what the noises they picked up could have been. Doyle also started heading to the ski lodge where the scientists had decided to convene for the time being.

Suddenly something occurred to Zak, once he got over his shock.

"Since when am I "sweetie"?" Zak asked no one in particular.

Fiskerton shrugged.

* * *

At the ski lodge Zak was sitting at a table with the binoculars he had yet to return to their proper owner. He had been sitting there looking through the binoculars since everyone had relocated to the lodge. He was on a hunt to find the lizard thing he'd seen earlier, and as a predator, his prey would be found. He was determined to find it again and show everyone because, to his annoyance, the others seemed a little skeptical. Grudgingly, he supposed a giant lizard showing up at the top of an erupting volcano _was _a little hard to believe. But he was a kid who turned into a furry wolf!

'… _Not that they know that, but still!' _Zak mused irritably.

Most of the others, meanwhile, where at another table having a scientific discussion about what could be causing the weird noises they had picked up. Zak wasn't sure if they had any ideas yet, but then again, he wasn't paying attention to them at all anyway. His vigilant watch on the volcano required his full attention.

While Zak continued his lizard-watch, Fiskerton was getting a little concerned about his partner-in-mischief. Normally they would at least be outside having a snowball fight by now, but Zak just sat there looking at the volcano which was, in Fiskerton's opinion, looking very boring now that the eruption was over. The Fiskerton Phantom didn't think he'd ever seen Zak sit still for that long before… Frankly it scared him.

"_Let's go outside and have a snowball fight!" _Fiskerton tried to convince Zak to take a break from his volcano watch but the eleven year old, who would have normally jumped at the idea, wasn't interested at the moment.

"Maybe later, Fisk." Zak told him, barely taking any attention off his mission.

Fiskerton wasn't sure what to do now and wondered if perhaps Zak had caught some sort of disease. Maybe he should tell his parents in case something was wrong? Yes, that was a good idea. Fiskerton wanted Zak to act normal again. His parents would know what to do.

"I know he's not behaving normally, but Zak's not sick, Fiskerton. He's just determined to prove his lizard theory and should be back to normal soon." Doc said, reassuring his Cryptid son after he'd confided in them his worries over Zak's behavior.

"_Are you sure?"_

"If he keeps acting like this or starts showing any other symptoms, we'll think about running some tests to make sure." Doc told the troubled Cryptid and Fiskerton was now slightly reassured of Zak's health. Or at least knew that if the strange behavior continued they would make sure he was ok.

Fiskerton then left and the Saturday parents went over to where Zak was still sitting.

"You do realize that Fiskerton thinks you're sick, right?"

"Huh?" Zak actually turned away from the volcano to look at Doc and Drew. "I'm fine! Why would he think that?"

"You've barely moved since you got here. At first we thought that maybe nearly dying had an effect on you, and we'd hoped that maybe you'd think a little more next time, but you're not reacting from a near death experience. You've just been watching that volcano, waiting for that thing you saw." Drew had her hands on her hips. Both Saturday parents had hoped that Zak's earlier experience would teach him to be more careful, but it seems like he brushed it off like it happened every day. "And - Zak! Are you even listening?!"

Somewhere in the middle of her speech Zak had gone back to looking at the volcano.

"Yeah! But, look!" Zak pointed out the window and the Saturday parents squinted and saw something traveling down the volcano toward the town.

"Is that-?" Doc could barely believe his eyes.

"Yep." Zak said with a satisfied smile. "It's a giant lizard thing."

"It's heading towards the town!" Doc realized and the parents started rushing to stop the creature from reaching the town and potentially reeking havoc.

"We have to stop it!" Drew exclaimed and the commotion gathered the attention of her brother Doyle, who came over to see what to fuss was about.

"Whoa. What's with the green mini-Godzilla."

"It's a giant green lizard, just like I said I saw." Zak still had the satisfied smile on his face.

"Let's go, we need to stop it before it reaches the town." The family left the lodge to go towards the lizard.

Suddenly Dr. Cheechoo, who was going to stay behind, noticed something peculiar. "Were those my binoculars?"

* * *

As they were rushing toward the Cryptid Doc had looked it up and gotten a match in the Cryptipedia. It was called a Cherufe and it's skin was way too hot to get near it. Quickly, everyone went and put on extreme temperature suits and went to stop the Cryptid.

The Cherufe was traveling down the volcano towards the small town faster than one would think it could go. What it was going there to do when it got there, they didn't know but Cryptids plus any kind of settlement usually ended in disaster. As Cryptozoologists, it was the Saturdays' job to not only protect the town from the Cherufe but the Cherufe from the town.

The Cherufe roared when they got closer to it, and Zak decided that his first course of action would be to try his powers.

The Hand of Tsul 'Kalu glowed as Zak focused his ability. He could feel that something was upsetting the creature but he wasn't sure what yet. Before he could try to find out the Cherufe attempted to hit Zak with its large tail. Seeing the tail coming toward him Zak threw himself to the side and out of the way. His focus on his powers was destroyed and the connection lost.

The Cherufe was very angry at the creatures that dared to stop its decent to the town below. It roared in anger as the snow melted around its feet and left a unique trail.

The good news was that the Cherufe stopped its journey to the town and instead turned its focus on the pesky creatures that dared to get in its way.

"Hey mini-man! Catch!" Doyle shouted and tossed Zak a small cylindrical container with a tube and a hose like device attached on the end.

Zak caught the contraption and used it to spray the Cherufe with… water?

Zak was confused as to why Doyle wanted him to drench the Cherufe in liquid. Did he think cooling it down would calm it or something?

Then Doyle came flying by again on his jetpack with another one of the hose things pointed at the Cherufe. It looked like some sort of mist was coming out towards the Cherufe. Suddenly ice started forming on the Cherufe's body and soon the it was frozen inside one big Cherufe-shaped ice cube.

'_Oh.' _Zak thought _'That's kinda cool… In more ways than one.'_ He chuckled a little at his pun.

The fight seemed to be over, but then the Cherufe ice cube started cracking and in a shower of both small and large chunks of ice the Cherufe broke free.

"Alright, new plan!" Drew yelled as she ran up to the large green lizard and kicked it in the head.

The Cherufe reeled back from the blow but before it could recover Doyle threw several concussion grenades at it. The grenades exploded with a flash and a bang and the Cherufe was suddenly in a cloud of thick, grey smoke.

Zak's eyes glowed orange with a mystical power as he tried his powers again. The Cherufe was very angry and agitated so it was a challenge for him to keep the connection going. He shut his eyes so he could concentrate better and hoped nothing would hit him while he wasn't looking. He could feel the Cherufe's anger thundering through the connection. It was like raging ocean even in his own head.

'_Calm down…' _Zak thought and tried calming the Cryptid using his powers.

It wasn't working very well though, and Zak tried concentrating on why the Cryptid was so angry. Aside from the Saturdays attacking it, of course.

'_Wait…' _Zak thought, he'd felt something there…

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and it all made sense.

"Wait! Stop! It's not trying to hurt anyone!" He shouted.

The Cherufe roared again and swiped at them with its almost claw-like hand, but then it got down on all fours and wiggled out of its own skin.

The Saturdays looked a little surprised at the revelation, but Zak had just figured it out and was happy that the Cherufe looked a lot calmer now.

"It was just shedding its skin?" Doyle questioned, wondering how all the mayhem was caused simply because the creature had been shedding its skin.

"Yep." Zak confirmed, activating his powers on the now calmer Cryptid. It was much easier to keep the connection going now that it wasn't so angry.

"I'm gonna lead it home." He told the others before heading back toward the volcano with the Cherufe following behind.

* * *

On the way toward the volcano Zak's mind wandered again to the recent events in his life. And then somehow he ended up explaining the whole thing to the Cherufe following him back to its home.

" - So you see, I'm just not sure what to feel anymore." Zak confessed to the creature and sighed as he stopped walking and plopped down in the snow.

The Cherufe, who was in a stunningly better mood, turned out to be a much better listener than he would've ever thought. It grunted and while still on all four legs walked to where Zak had sat down in the snow and offered an encouraging gentle head butt to his suit covered arm.

"Yeah, thanks for listening." Zak smiled "I think I've finally got it figured out. I like this, going around the world on adventures and helping Cryptids. I like living with the Saturdays, more than I ever thought I would. I don't wanna be lonely and alone anymore."

The Cherufe grunted.

"Oh, right. You probably have someone waiting for you, don't you?" Zak said, standing up, shaking the snow off and continuing up the volcano.

Further up the volcano, Zak waved goodbye to the Cherufe as the creature dove back into its volcanic home before something suddenly occurred to him.

"Wait!" Zak shouted after it, "You better not tell anyone what I told you!"

* * *

The trip down the volcano had been very quiet with only the sound of Zak's footsteps in the snow. However, once he finally made it back down to the area of the ski lodge he walked straight into the middle of a confrontation.

V.V. Argost and his assistant Munya had arrived.

'_What are they doing here?' _Zak wondered, regarding the two with extreme caution. He wasn't very happy to see them. Of course, he never was, but after being kept overnight at Weird World he was extra cautious.

"Greetings and bienvenue." Argost noticed Zak and he smiled in the chilling maniacal way he usually does. "Ah, little Saturday, it was very rude of you to leave without even saying goodbye."

Zak gulped nervously. Weird World was not a place he wanted to visit ever again.

"Leave him alone Argost!" Doc threatened. He still hadn't forgotten the aftermath of Zak's capture and how worried they had been.

Despite the implied threat, Argost didn't seem at all worried.

"No matter. Munya, we are leaving, it seems we've missed the fun." Argost's jet appeared in the sky and the crazy TV host and his servant flew away.

Zak relaxed a little now that they were gone. He already knew that whenever Argost of his henchmen appeared, things rarely end well.

"Am I the only one who thinks that was a little odd?" Doyle asked, still watching the sky where the jet disappeared.

"Odd? Maybe, but I'm just happy he left." Drew crossed her arms.

"He's right." Doc reluctantly admitted, a little discontented to be agreeing with Doyle because of their usual rivalry. "Argost left too easily. Why would he come all the way here and then just leave?"

"Maybe what he came for wasn't around anymore?" Zak speculated. "Could it have been the Cherufe? It's back in the volcano now."

"I don't know, we should keep an eye out, but for now our job is done." Doc said and the family said goodbye to Dr. Cheechoo and went back to the airship.

* * *

As soon as they got back to the airship, Doc and Drew went to study the hologram of the pieces they had of the Kur Stone. It seemed too strange that Argost would fly all the way there and then just leave. The only reason they could think of was connected to Kur.

"There." Drew pointed to a certain spot on the holographic stone. "It's the Cherufe. I can't believe we didn't realize it before."

"So that's why Argost showed up." Doyle said. "Something connected to that creature is one of the keys."

"We need to get back down there." Doc stated. "If the Cherufe is that important then Argost must have been trying to lead us away. He never left."

"Oh no!" Drew suddenly exclaimed, still looking at the holographic stone. "We have to hurry!"

"What?! What does he want with the Cherufe?!" Zak asked, worried about the lizard creature, but no one heard him. They had already left the room and Zak hastily followed.

* * *

The eleven year old quickly caught up with the others just in time to see Argost's jet flying away for the second time that day.

"No!" Drew shouted. "He got away!" She looked distraught and Zak had a very bad feeling.

"What happened?" Zak asked cautiously, almost dreading the answer.

"The Kur Stone had an image of an egg on it. I assume it was the Cherufe's." She explained sadly.

Zak paled, but it was Doyle who voiced what both of them were thinking. "You mean he stole an egg?!"

"We think so." Doc said sadly.

Zak suddenly felt very grim. He knew Argost was bad, but to actually take a Cryptid's egg? That was much worse than what he usually did and Zak didn't even want to think about what he needed the egg for. What purpose would an egg serve in the search for Kur? And especially the egg of a Cryptid like - _'Wait!'_ Zak suddenly thought.

He twisted around to stare at the now still volcano. After a few moments the others noticed his suspicious gaze.

"What's up mini-man? Something wrong?" Doyle asked.

"It doesn't make sense…" Zak murmured. He had a feeling he was missing something and because of that feeling he decided to investigate. He didn't know if it would even work but he had to try anyway.

The orange glow bathed the area in a subtle glow and the color illuminated on the soft white snow. The Saturdays looked confused, and they wondered what he was doing. They looked around in alarm but couldn't see any reason Zak would need to activate his powers. Zak took little notice of their confusion. He was too busy concentrating. He may have occasionally attempted something like this before but he never had much success with it.

He closed his eyes in concentration and tried to mentally reach out to Cryptids that he couldn't see. Eye contact has been essential in the process but Zak thought with practice he could faze out that aspect.

He had a suspicion but to confirm it he needed to connect with the Cherufe in the volcano. Obviously he couldn't just go in the burning lava and look for it so he was resigned to attempting a connection from outside.

"Uh, do any of you know what he's doing?" Doyle asked the others.

"I don't know, but I don't think we should interrupt." Drew motioned for everyone to be quiet.

Meanwhile, Zak was deep in concentration for several minutes but didn't seem to be getting anywhere. He was about to stop searching when he suddenly… Sensed. He could feel several Cryptids. He could feel Fiskerton behind him and he could feel the Cherufe in the volcano. To his surprise he discovered there was another Cherufe living in the volcano as well. Zak focused solely on the Cherufe he had helped earlier, he hoped it would accept the connection a little better since they had already been introduced.

When he connected with its mind his suspicions were confirmed. He felt annoyance, a lot of annoyance that its nest had just been broken into but no furious anger. He felt protectiveness for its family, but no feeling like it's going to go on an uncontrollable rampage.

Zak smiled and let the connection fade and the familiar orange glow disappeared.

"You wanna clue in the rest of the class here?" Doyle said.

Zak was still smiling. "Argost didn't take an egg."

The eleven year old could tell they really wanted to believe him but were having a little trouble.

"How do you know that?" Doc asked.

"I managed to link with the Cherufe from earlier. It's annoyed that it's nest was broken into, but it's not furious or anything. It tried to tear apart a town because it was _shedding its skin_. Just think of what it'd be doing if its egg was actually stolen."

The family looked very relieved that an innocent Cherufe egg had not been abducted.

"But if he didn't take an egg, what did he take?" Doc wondered.

Zak shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is that whatever it was, they don't seem to care that it's gone."

Drew sighed. "Well that's odd, but at least the eggs are safe. There isn't anything else for us to do here."

The group started walking back to the airship when Drew turned to Zak. "By the way, Zak, I've never seen you use your powers without being able to see the Cryptid."

"Well," Zak confessed. "That was the first time it's actually worked…"

* * *

In the middle of the night, a lone figure hide in the shadows. Planning, waiting, for the perfect moment. Months of preparation had been put into this operation, getting the house layout, working out how to bypass the security system, and by the end of the night he would have a few more rare creatures to sell.

* * *

**(1) In case you didn't get it, that's obliviousness.**

**(2)** **True story. In the episode Dr. Cheechoo welcomes them to Osorno, according to my Cryptid field guide book, the Cherufe is from South America and there is a volcano called Osorno in Chile. And the original Cherufe mythology legend is from South America. Yeah that's right, I did the research. :P**

* * *

Ok, so as I said in the note before I started the chapter this was originally going to be massively long and pretty groundbreaking story wise. However after 5,000 words and 10 pages I decided to split it into two chapters. I want to take my time on the next chapter because it's really important and I want it to be good. However I wanted to assure everyone that even after so long this story will **NEVER **be abandoned. Also, I'd like to totally apologize about how long it's been since I've updated. You guys deserve a much better apology but hopefully the long chapter will make up for it a little. J

Also, I'm taking a little bit of artistic license with Zak's powers. How they work is never really elaborated on in the show but I imagine this is somewhat how it works.

Oh and the story image is mine! I made it myself. I'm aware it's not very good, but hey, at least I tried. J

Please review so I know people still read this!

~ White Wolf Out ~


End file.
